On December 20, 2022, the Embassy of India in Astana organised a B2B meeting to promote "Medical Value Tourism" between India and Kazakhstan.
The event aimed to develop the cooperation between hospitals, hospitality and insurance industries in India and Kazakhstan, increase the flow of Medical tourists between the two countries, attract investments in these areas to improve the quality of services and find a solution to overcome barriers in these spheres.
In her welcome remarks, the Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan Ms. Shubhdarshini Tripathi noted that the Indian healthcare industry competes with the best in the world in terms of infrastructure, technology, specialist doctors and nurses. India’s expertise in highly specialised areas of organ transplants, cardiology, oncology, etc. has made India an emerging hotspot for medical value travel. As a humanitarian gesture, India extended its home grown vaccine to more than 100 countries under its Vaccine Maitri initiative, - highlighted Ms. Shubhdarshini Tripathi.
From the Kazakh side, the Director of the department for organisation of medical aid of the Ministry of Healthcare of Kazakhstan Mr. Azamat Dyussenov delivered a welcome remark. During his remarks he mentioned that with the aim of further development and promotion medical tourism, the Healthcare Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan last year approved an action plan for the development of medical tourism, which defines such areas as organising and awareness-raising work on medical tourism in Kazakhstan and increasing the capacity of healthcare organisations, including the expansion of services (medical, service), in demand in foreign countries.
In turn, additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, Mr. Lav Agarwal, in his keynote speech, emphasized that the Health Ministry of India is leading the Medical Value Travel (MVT) Initiative, wherein international patients flying to India for medical treatment are provided support through a robust ecosystem, including a soon-to-be launched integrated web portal and mobile app called “Heal in India,” to manage their end-to-end patient journey. According to him, equipped with a highly trained and experienced healthcare workforce well-versed in English, India has 1.3 million allopathic doctors, 800,000 doctors trained in traditional medicines and over 3.4 million nurses. Later, he gave the example that a cardiac procedure that costs between $40,000 and $60,000 in most other countries, including developed nations, costs only $3,000 to $6,000 in India.
It is important to note that during the first session, the Health Ministry of India made a demonstration of the Medical Value Digital Portal.
The second part of the event was devoted to thematic presentations, in which the heads of leading companies in the medical sector explained advantages of MVT in India. Director of the Apollo Hospitals Group Dr. Anupam Sibal talked about opportunities and prospects to collaborate with Kazakhstan and possible models of MVT.
The second thematic presentation was delivered by Managing Director of the Sri Sri Tattva Mr. Arvind Varchaswi. He dedicated his speech to wellness tourism and the AYUSH system of medicine.
From the Indian side, the event was attended in an online format by the National Agency for the Promotion and Promotion of Investments ("Invest India"), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, as well as leading medical care and healthcare companies such as Apollo hospitals, Artemis Hospitals, Shinon Healthcare, Magnus Medi, SimplifyMVT, Medanta Hospital, Medijourn Solutions and others.
