Apollo hospitals, India's largest corporate hospital chain, is planning a major overseas push that would include constructing more multi-speciality hospitals in Africa and southeast Asia.
"We have major expansion plans. We are extending our geographical reach," said Prathap C. Reddy, the group's chairman.
"We are looking at more countries like Malaysia, besides expanding to Nigeria and Ghana," Reddy told IANS.
Reddy, who heads the Hyderabad-based group, was here to attend the India Healthcare Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The group's major hospitals in India are in Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. It also has a strong international presence with healthcare facilities in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Nepal.
The Apollo group has also announced multi-speciality hospital projects in Bangladesh and Nepal.
Reddy said his business house is looking for participation in private and public healthcare groups in several countries. They include Oman, Bahrain, Mauritius, Vietnam and Thailand.
The group's foray into Sri Lanka was highly successful because of the government support there. "The incentives that the government (of Sri Lanka) offers promote rapid growth and encourage further investment," he said.
He said his business in Sri Lanka enjoyed a 12-year tax holiday and duty concessions on equipment imports.
Reddy said the group would eventually offer quality bed strength of close to 10,000 in the next few years. The group, which achieved a Rs.5.42-billion ($120 million) turnover during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004, has about 2,000 beds now.
Reddy said India needed radical policy changes to realise the potential it had in becoming a global hub for healthcare.
In the context of giving concessions to lure industries, he recalled how M. Karunanidhi, when he was Tamil Nadu chief minister, used to explain the facilities including an attractive tax holiday that he granted a carmaker.
"Karunanidhi used to say that if he was not giving the tax waiver, that would have lost the investment. But once the unit became operational, it encouraged several other industries to set up shop in the state. Tamil Nadu today has one of the most vibrant automobile industry belts in South Asia."
Reddy welcomed the declaration in India's budget giving infrastructure status to the healthcare sector, but hoped it would not be overturned in bureaucratic rigmarole.
He was positive that the total healthcare cost would come down by 30-40 percent if the government agreed to remove the levies that added to the cost.
The group has proposed a medical insurance scheme for farmers in collaboration with the National Insurance Company. Under the scheme, every farmer would be insured against treatment costs of life-threatening diseases for an annual premium of Rs.150.
"The prime minister was quite impressed by the scheme when I met him," Reddy said.
--Indo-Asian News Service