China Ventures Into Privatized Health (China)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Public access to China's state-run hospital system has dwindled since the late 1970s, but efforts to privatize the healthcare system are underway. Siemens, the German technology firm, and the hospital operator Asklepios Kliniken, also of Germany, have joined forces with Shanghai-based Tongji University to build the Sino-German Friendship Hospital in Shanghai's International Medical Zone. Construction is slated to commence in 2008, and the facility should be completed by the 2010 World Expo. Foreign companies can own as much as 70 percent of joint venture hospitals under Chinese law, and Siemens and Asklepios will hold stakes of 40 percent and 14 percent, respectively; the remainder will be held by the university. The hospital will be given a 20-year business license as allowed by law, but the German firms are hoping to get an extended license for 50 years - a move supported by the Commerce Ministry. "If you only have a 20-year time frame, you are not providing the best service to the public," notes Siemens Project Ventures Managing Director Wolfgang Bischoff. (Click here for more
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