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Will AEC positively affect medical tourism?

Asia is considered to be a major player in the medical tourism sector. Many Asian countries have been hugely building up on their medical facilities and infrastructure in order to attract medical tourists from all over the world. There are convenient, high quality and affordable healthcare services being provided by Asian countries. However, it will be interesting to see how a shift in the economic policy would influence medical tourism in these nations. In the year 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be created that would represent a common regional market for all ASEAN countries. This group would include countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines.

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Forming AEC would mean a free flow of services, goods, labor, and investment capital. However, it will bring various opportunities, as well as challenges with itself. In the free trade world of AEC, healthcare is one of the top five priority sectors. It will allow people from various countries to cross borders for medical tourism purposes. Thus, countries that have innovative technology and state-of-the-art medical facilities and services will attract many of these medical tourists. In addition, the creation of AEC would also lead to countries developing their personnel, technology and facilities.

Not only medical tourists, but also domestic people of these nations would benefit from the developed infrastructure and healthcare services. This is also bound to create more business and competition among these countries. Countries currently having a good reputation in the medical tourism sector might attract more service providers from other nations that are part of AEC. Due to the formation of AEC, these well-developed countries will also be able to allow much more foreign equity than they currently do. An overall boost in the medical tourism sector would also give a boost to the quality of medical treatments.

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Apart from the above benefits, AEC could also bring about some challenges like the possible communication problem in ASEAN nations when people from non-English-speaking countries visit them. Further, there is still a lot to figure out as far as the legal and licensing issues in ASEAN countries are concerned. Some experts have also criticized the slow movement and lack of leadership displayed by AEC. Additionally, it is very much required that ASEAN countries stop viewing each other as competitors, but should act in cooperation if the entire region needs to progress in term of attracting more medical tourists from all over the world. However, the positive effects of AEC are bound to reflect if we could overcome these challenges with time.

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