A staff member of the Vietnam Foreign Investment Agency, who spoke o­n condition of anonymity, told that she did not see any good signs for FDI in the sector this year.

She also said that the healthcare sector seemed to be less attractive to foreign investors, who have complained about difficult procedures and conditions.

She explained that the sector required an investor to put up at least 20 million USD to open a new hospital and 2 million USD to open a new clinic.

“In current difficult economic times, this capital is not small,” she said.

“There is now a big project invested in by Germany. The investors really want to implement it, but they may face many challenges because it is carried out under the public-private partnership scheme, which is quite new here.”

A representative from the healthcare minsitry agrees with her assessment.

In a report, the Dau Tu newspaper said that Hanoi and its neighbouring provinces would see the opening of two FDI-hospitals in the first quarter.

However, plans for these have not been completed in a timely manner. In addition, many projects have faced challenges in meeting investment procedures and requirements.

Most of those were interviewed about the subject said that such investments were actually rather modest, especially considering the fact that many residents continue to spend huge amounts of money for healthcare services abroad and that demand has greatly increased. Despite this, there are still an insufficient number of high-quality hospitals.

 Hanoitimes