Bgh looking to the middle east for growth

Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BGH) is negotiating with state and private firms in the Middle East to co-invest in the healthcare business and hopes to conclude several deals soon.

Chatree Duangnet, CEO of Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre, which is under BGH, yesterday said this would be a major investment for the company. Negotiations are ongoing with Dubai, Qatar and Oman, as well as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

"I cannot disclose details of the new business. It's meant to be a healthcare business that will be established in two countries. The value is estimated to exceed that of the hospital we're building in Abu Dhabi," he said.

BGH will open a hospital in Abu Dhabi in the fourth quarter and plans to build a second one next year with 250 beds and worth Bt3 billion.

The company has established a policy of continued business expansion in Middle East countries. BGH believes that region will become a medical hub within five years.

Chatree said BGH was quite well known in the Middle East and thus several private firms and state agencies want to enter into partnerships.

Recently, BGH concluded deals with agencies and companies in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar and Oman to collaborate in healthcare service. These groups will send their employees for medical service in hospitals under BGH's network in Thailand. One of the new contracts is with the largest oil firm in Abu Dhabi.

BGH has already signed similar contracts with Dubai's Defence and Public Health ministries and Qatar's Public Health Ministry, Chatree said.

Yesterday, BGH announced a medical collaboration with Saint Anna Hospital's Centre for Orthopaedics and Traumatology in Herne, Germany. They will jointly organise a live-surgery and cadaveric workshop featuring the new medical technology of endoscopic surgery. BGH is the first hospital in Southeast Asia to use this  technology.

      At a glance

n BGH will open a new hospital in Abu Dhabi in the fourth

quarter.

n It also plans to build a second one next year consisting of 250 beds and worth Bt3 billion.

n BGH announced a medical collaboration with Saint Anna Hospital, Herne, Germany.