Seoul moves to attract foreign hospitals to free economic zones

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is moving to attract foreign hospitals to its free economic zones (FEZs), the government said Wednesday, ironically by adding more regulations to its decree governing such facilities.
Construction of foreign hospitals is already possible under the current law governing FEZs, but the problem is that existing requirements for such a facility are overly simple, according to an official from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Currently, the law only states a foreign hospital must have a gross capital of over 5 billion won (US$4.28 million) with half of the amount invested by foreign entities.
"The current requirements for foreign hospitals are too simple, and this has become an uncertainty for foreign investors, who fear additional requirements may be added in the future that would have affected their investment decisions now," said ministry official Min Sang-ki.
Foreign hospitals are key components of special economic regions that seek to attract foreign investors and businesses, as well as an integral part of Seoul's plan to build a regional medical hub that could meet the growing number of foreign tourists coming to the country for treatment or to get physical examinations.
Under the envisioned plan for the existing government decree, the ministry plans to require foreign hospitals to take charge of managing FEZ hospitals that they've invested in.
In addition, the revised decree will require such new medical facilities to fill a certain ratio of their medical staff with foreign trained and licensed doctors or dentists. Details of how many foreign staff will be required are to be set later by the country's health minister.
The ministry in overall charge of supporting the country's FEZs said, Seoul plans to implement the revision before the year's end. It, however, said efforts to revise the decree will cease as soon as parliament legislates any of the two proposed revisions to the special FEZ law that can have similar effects.
"Initially, the government hoped to see the related revisions at the National Assembly passed at an early date but decided to pursue its own measures after the parliamentary process stalled," the ministry said in a news release.