Kazakhstan is set to develop one of the promising tourism industries – the medical one. An association was established specifically for this purpose. It will perform several tasks, including the initiation of legislative changes in the industry and the attraction of patients to the country’s clinics.
“We made the counting. According to the last year’s results, about 5,000 foreign medical tourists came to Kazakhstan. This is a good result. Dentistry is our primary advantage. There are also other advantages, including the cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, implant surgery, transplantation of some organs, as well as the in vitro fertilization,” Yerzhan Baltayev, head of the Department for Investments and Entrepreneurship Development of Nur-Sultan city, said.
According to the Chairperson of the Kazakh Tourism company Talgat Amanbayev, the country has a number of advantages for foreign patients to choose domestic clinics for treatment and diagnostics.
“We have a competitive advantage for this. The pricing policy is very soft and we have excellent nature for the rehabilitation after surgery, including any kind of plastic surgery. In general, we have a very good average bill, both for a foreign tourist and a medical tourist. The second thing that we are offering now is the creation of special measures of state support. It was proposed to give the public procurement orders only to those health facilities that would meet certain criteria, and give them some preferences, in return. I will announce a new proposal, which is the creation of a special medical zone for the development of new centers,” Talgat Amanbayev, Chairperson of the Kazakh Tourism National Company, said.
According to the industry experts, nowadays, mainly patients from neighboring countries come to Kazakhstan for medical services. The received funds are primarily directed to the development of new technologies and the training of health workers. The Kazakh capital remains the center of attraction for foreign medical tourists. Leading diagnostic centers and clinics are located here. Six centers out of eight accredited by the JCI are located in Nur-Sultan.
