Far East Development Fund considers medical tourism programs

The regions of Russia’s Far East could propose establishing medical tourism programs to lure in visitors from Asian countries, the CEO of Russia’s Far East Development Fund Alexei Chekunkov said.

“In the sphere of medical tourism, we have an interesting project on Sakhalin Island. There are people with progressive ideas working on the team of Governor Valery Limarenko (Sakhalin Region), and they want to ensure that the Japanese come to the region for medical treatment. Not the other way around. It is quite possible, taking into account the population aging and hard commercialization of services abroad,” the fund’s CEO said, adding that medicine was no longer a social service, but rather a very expensive privilege everywhere else in the world.

According to Chekunkov, medical staff from Russia’s Far Eastern regions may also travel to Korea and Japan to offer their services. The Sakhalin Island and Primorsky Territory are two potential areas of development in this field in Russia, the fund’s chief specified.

“Yes, it’s dark and cold there, but in the same Murmansk offers the best fly fishing in the world. This is royal entertainment. Furthermore, all winter entertainment is very easy to arrange: for this, you need a little capital, snow, and cold. We have snow and cold, we also have capital. Kamchatka offers hot springs and SPA for recreational tourism. Ecotourism – people want to eat the cleanest fish in the world, drink the cleanest water. These all are opened niches for us,” Chekunkov said.

The Far East Development Fund was established in November 2011 to facilitate the inflow of investments, develop projects in Russia’s Far East and foster cooperation with foreign partners.