By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
In addition to allowing foreign investors to operate hospitals in the country's free economic zones (FEZs), the government Tuesday eased another regulation, permitting them to run hotels and saunas at medical centers.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said its revised FEZ management bill will further ease restrictions on foreigners by letting them run saunas, spas, hotels and tourist facilities, ultimately helping to attract more visitors from home and abroad.
This is the most recent development since late last year, when the National Assembly passed a bill that let not only individual foreign investors, but also overseas institutional investors invest in the domestic hospital business.
The first investor expected to benefit from the new plan will be the New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), a 600-bed hospital scheduled to open in the Songdo FEZ near Incheon International Airport by the end of this year.
Ministry officials say that local corporations and hospitals will probably show more interest in the new rule, too, as they can enjoy the benefits by teaming up with foreign institutional investors.
There are FEZs in Incheon, Busan-Jinhae and Gwangyang, but the government has plans to add more, which will eventually become bilingual English-Korean cities where foreigners can run schools, hospitals, get tax breaks and enjoy other incentives.
Officials say the revised bill will have a bigger impact on the domestic medical service landscape once more foreign hospitals start operations here.
The government sees the aggressive changes as necessary because it eyes the medical tourism industry as a promising growth engine.
According to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Korean medical institutions made $61.6 million from overseas patients in 2007, up 9 percent from $59 million in 2006.
Also included in the revised bill are new standards for running casinos.
The ministry outlined that an investor must get an investment-grade rating from at least two global credit rating companies, operate more than three different tourism-related businesses and have invested more than $300 million by the time they officially request to open a casino.
Minister of Knowledge Economy Lee Yoon-ho hinted last month that he will introduce broader deregulation measures to have the restriction-pressed FEZs live up to their names as free zones.