The decision was reached at a meeting of the Executive Yuan’s finance and economics task force held a day earlier, the official said, adding that the special project office will be jointly managed by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).

In the initial stage, the official said, the office will focus on promoting globalization of several medical areas in which Taiwan enjoys a competitive edge, such as liver transplant, craniofacial surgery, cardiovascular surgery, artificial insemination and joint replacement surgery.

During the first three years from 2007 through 2009, the official said, the special project office will assist 10 selected hospitals to provide medical and health-care services to patients from abroad.

According to a CEPD estimate, the medical service globalization project will create NT$7 billion (US$212 million) worth of business, inspire an additional NT$6.8 billion in private investment, and create 1,500 jobs over three years.

Speaking at Wednesday’s special task force meeting, CEPD Chairwoman Ho Mei-yueh said that by 2015, the medical service globalization project will generate about NT$50 billion in business annually, accounting for 0.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) , and provide medical services to 800,000 foreign patients per year.

Intangible benefits will include upgrading the country’s international image, facilitating medical diplomacy with such countries as Vietnam and Mongolia, as well as stimulating development in relevant industries and services, Ho said.

Analyzing Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global medical service and health care market, Tsai Su-ling, a DOH counselor, said Taiwan outpaces major forerunners in this field, including India, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, in terms of service quality, adding that Taiwan’s service charges are very reasonable and even cheaper.

Moreover, Tsai said, Taiwan can offer very convenient and highly efficient medical services, and local medical institutions and travel service agents are keenly interested in getting into this market.

Also, because of language and cultural factors, Tsai said, Taiwan also stands a good chance of attracting patients of Chinese descent, particularly white-collar Chinese citizens.

Nevertheless, Tsai also outlined several disadvantages that Taiwan needs to overcome, including inadequate English-speaking skills of medical workers, a lack of platforms for the medical sector to cooperate with other service industries, and legal restrictions.

Generally speaking, Tsai said, local medical institutions remain inexperienced in packaging and marketing their professional services and in associating or collaborating with other service sectors. “More efforts must be devoted to this,” she added.

Noting that globalized medical services cover two areas, namely tourism plus health care and special medical treatment, Tsai said Taiwan will focus on tapping the latter category, with Southeast Asian and ethnic Chinese people as the main service targets.

Meanwhile, Tsai said, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instructed its overseas offices to include medical service on the list of items for short-term stay visa eligibility. Chinese patients can be issued special visas on a case-by-case basis in accordance with existing regulations, she said, adding that over the long run, the law must be revised to facilitate entry of white-collar Chinese people for medical treatment.

Tsai further said the plan to attract foreign patients is not expected to have a “squeeze effect” on services for local citizens since only 70 percent of the country’s 90,000-plus hospital beds are in use at one time, and foreign patients are only expected to occupy about 5 percent of all hospital beds at any one time.

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