- 3 hours ago
The Malaysia Year of Medical Tourism 2026 (MYMT 2026) initiative aims to build on 2024’s 1.6 million arrivals and RM2.72 billion in revenue, with a target of reaching 2.5 million plus medical tourist arrivals in 2026.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks to Dato Sri Dr Vincent Tiew, Executive Director, KL Wellness City to unpack the business mechanics behind medical tourism — from how Malaysia compares with regional peers, to why healthcare real estate is attracting capital, and what integrated healthcare developments mean for the wider economy.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks to Dato Sri Dr Vincent Tiew, Executive Director, KL Wellness City to unpack the business mechanics behind medical tourism — from how Malaysia compares with regional peers, to why healthcare real estate is attracting capital, and what integrated healthcare developments mean for the wider economy.
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00:07Hello and welcome to Nyaga Spotlight with me, Tamina Kaosji. Nyaga Spotlight takes us through
00:11the week in economic analysis and future affairs. Today on future affairs, our spotlight is on
00:17medical tourism and healthcare cities. Now, Malaysia Year of Medical Tourism 2026,
00:23MYMD 2026 initiative is aiming high. In 2024, Malaysia recorded 1.6 million medical tourist
00:31arrivals, generating a healthy 2.72 billion ringgit in revenue. The target now is to push
00:38beyond 2.5 million arrivals by 2026. Medical tourism is clearly no longer a niche market
00:45and has evolved into a booming services-centered sector. But scaling to such a level requires
00:53more than attracting patients. The overall ecosystem from healthcare capacity and healthcare
00:59workforce pressures to capital investment, recovery infrastructure and the patient experience beyond
01:06the hospital stay become a focus. So, excuse me, this is where integrated healthcare cities
01:13like KL Wellness City enter the conversation. To examine all of that and more, I'm joined in
01:19the studios by Dathasri Dr. Vincent Yu, Executive Director of KL Wellness City. A very good morning
01:25to you, Dathasri. How are you doing? Good. Great. Fantastic. So, tell us a little bit more
01:30about the KL Wellness City development and placing it on par with Malaysia on a level because we're
01:37also competing now with Thailand as well as Singapore when it comes to medical tourism.
01:42Well, when the idea of KL Wellness City was conceived by our shareholders, the founders,
01:47primarily a group of medical doctors, to be exact, not property developers, not businessmen,
01:53led by our Dathasri Dr. Colin Lee. So, that is our founder and managing director. So, when this
01:58idea was conceived, primarily it's because we're seeing the Southeast Asia that you can find any
02:03wellness city or healthcare cities that is actually carefully master planned right from the start.
02:08So, we have big hospitals, good hospitals in Singapore, Thailand, etc. But in Malaysia,
02:13we are already having a very good level and standard of medical care and very good hospitals.
02:20So, when KL Wellness City was conceived, the whole idea was actually to complement our Malaysia
02:25government's strong positioning in medical tourism, even back then, more than eight years ago,
02:31and now it's 2026. So, the whole idea started off way before pandemic, way before COVID, sometime in 2016,
02:392015 and from that time onwards. So, to see a wellness city like KL Wellness City now happening in Bukit
02:45Jalil,
02:46Malaysia, with the first phase happening in end of this year, quarter four, 2026, having the first group of
02:53patients and customers and visitors, this means there has been a long-term planning. So, the whole idea about
02:59complementing and having this master planned township, which is poised to be the first carefully designed
03:08wellness and healthcare city in Southeast Asia. So, the whole idea is actually to bring in all the
03:14elements that defines, that is carefully close to the definition of wellness real estate. So, bringing in
03:22the office, the clinical, the hospitals, the medical centers, the retail, the wellness living, all into
03:31one place and carefully make sure that they are integrated. The whole idea is creating an ecosystem.
03:36So, no longer about standalone having one hospital. Exactly. So, that's how KL Wellness City was born.
03:41The whole idea is creating an integrated 360 comprehensive kind of township, a city that talks to each other,
03:47that integrates from the hardware and the software. So, basically, a decade in the making, Dathasri.
03:52But I think now is a perfect time to segue into talking a little bit more about how can we
03:57actually
03:57look at Malaysia maintaining some kind of an economic, basically competitive edge. Because another thing
04:05that is also going on in the meanwhile is talk about rising healthcare costs, pressures when it comes to
04:11the capacity to have the correct and sufficient number of healthcare workforce. So, compared to our
04:18regional neighbors, how do we compare in 2026?
04:21Okay. So, we did very well, Malaysia did very well under the great leadership under the
04:26tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Health, MHTC. Malaysia had a great, fantastic 1.56 million of visitors in 2024.
04:35And now, in 2026, we are going at more than 2 million target itself. So, in relation to this, basically,
04:42Malaysia's strength, even though overall globally and Southeast Asia itself, all the costs are rising,
04:49medical related costs. But this applies not just in Malaysia. It happens also in Singapore, Thailand,
04:54India and etc. So, everyone is facing the same thing. But we have a very big advantage because Malaysia,
05:00we are already very good, having a very high level of standards. And we already have many good
05:05hospitals, you know, with high and strong establishments, partnerships, collaborations,
05:11and accreditations. So, that's already a low-lying food industry. So, henceforth, it is right and proper
05:17that the Ministry is actually pushing forward. So, to make sure that we continue to have this
05:22competitive advantage, I would say from three prone. First, it's actually the government. So, I think
05:27Malaysia, and honestly, I have to praise that the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Tourism,
05:33is doing it very well. They're going in the right direction. And all the support is showing
05:36the positive results. And this has to be done and had been done since one, two decades ago. So,
05:42that's why we see over a million of visitors. Now, number two is actually the private healthcare
05:47players. Private healthcare players, we also have very good support because it's so attractive and
05:51industry that overseas foreign institutions also came into Malaysia, came into Southeast Asia and start
05:56buying up and start playing a big role, you know, and booming and creating revenues and expanding the
06:04hospitals, chains and all that, you know. Then, of course, the third one is actually in terms of the
06:09Malaysian public itself. As the society goes on, we're talking about Southeast Asia and Malaysia, the
06:13aging population itself, this is already spurring us. So, to be exact, if you say that about what is actually
06:19our
06:19competitive advantage, I would say that our low cost of living and our currency, our steady currency
06:27in Malaysia. And it's been growing stronger over the past few months. Yeah, going stronger in the past.
06:30And, of course, not forgetting that actually the key thing is still the doctors. We have very good
06:36doctors in Malaysia, up to the extent that our neighbouring countries, the other countries are
06:39actually pinching and trying to get our doctors abroad and all that. But nevertheless, Malaysia, we have
06:45good numbers of good doctors. Now, talking about the other challenges and risks, probably in terms of
06:50healthcare professionals or that, probably in terms of nurses and some of the supporting staff and all
06:55that, this has been addressed also by the Ministry and the private healthcare players in Malaysia
07:02is really in full swing into this matter itself. Even though there is a challenge of maintaining or
07:09getting the right numbers, but the quality is to that. We have very good nurses, we have good supporting
07:14system and this also works very well to Malaysia. So, I'll give you an example. If you probably go
07:21to a neighbouring country, some of the countries, if you go, even the locals, they don't dare to do
07:26major operations in their own country, in their own private hospitals. They will come to Malaysia,
07:31they'll come to KL, they'll come to Selangor, they'll come to Penang for this operation itself. What does it
07:35speak? It speaks volumes that the standard and our comprehensiveness as well, our cost is really
07:41attractive and this has always been our strong point. So, really building on those strong points,
07:46right? I'd like to go a little bit deeper into the integrated medical townships as a worthy investment
07:53arena that the street. Now, clearly, of course, other than standalone hospitals, an integrated township
07:59definitely requires a lot more, not just upfront, but long-term investment to ensure the entire
08:05development comes about organically and also cohesively. What would be the economic case for
08:12Malaysia to focus now on healthcare cities now that we've become a proven regional player for medical
08:19tourism? Okay. So, creating and having a city, a township, if regardless, is 20 acres, 60 acres or 80 acres,
08:27for example. Like, in this case, KL Wellness City is 26.5 acres itself. Right. So, if I use the
08:32case,
08:33for example, to elaborate what are the components inside, you'll be seeing a lot of office space,
08:37which includes, like, the multimedia super corridor, MSC status kind of buildings, and it enables and
08:43promotes a lot of, we call it the startups, you know, the medical tech, the health tech companies to come
08:48in.
08:49Why? Because there's going to be a few hospitals and big medical centers, as well as ambulatory
08:54care centers, supported by a couple of few hundred units of medical clinics that will be probably
09:01owned by the doctors themselves. So, in this kind of ecosystem, there is also a few thousand units of
09:07wellness apartments. So, we talk about wellness apartments, we're talking about it incorporates
09:11the residential component. So, you have all this coming into one city, integrated by a lot of,
09:18not just structural integration, meaning moving on from one building to another building.
09:22Right. Convenience and all.
09:24Yes. And KL Wellness City is a wheelchair-friendly, accessible wheelchair-friendly city. So,
09:28from one building to another, it's, we make sure we take care of that as well. So, we want to
09:33make
09:33sure that the living is not just for the old, the young as well, but also for the healthcare travelers
09:38that comes to the city. So, what does it mean? So, you have a couple of hospitals, it needs to
09:42integrate with a lot of services. So, a hospital will usually tend to be standalone. You won't,
09:48we won't have a hospital trying to build other components, for example, assisted living. And
09:52that's another big thing in Malaysia. We may not also do the retirement homes, the senior living.
09:58Hospital is still at hospital. Integrated and at the same time, it's also standalone.
10:02That's right. So, when we build a city, we put all components together. And why are we able to do
10:06that? Because there's a lot of sharing resources. We make sure and we are able to ensure that the
10:12facilities, the medical equipment, the investments that put in are going to be better utilized. It
10:17spreads across the whole township utilization. From the employee point of view, for example,
10:23the nurses are able to have their extension of their services provided to the residents and to
10:30the visitors that is outside of the hospital. So, when they're outside of the hospital, the customers
10:35are no longer called patients. They are customers and they are residents, for example. So, when the
10:40nurses extend their services, for example, the nursing care, concierge care and all that, basically,
10:45it gives them the job enrichment and also opportunity to earn a little bit more money. The whole idea is
10:49actually making sure that whatever we invest into our hospitals and whenever the doctors open up
10:54their clinics, you know, be in our hospital or being in a hybrid model where they actually have
10:59their own clinics itself, they are able to capitalize and take advantage and work together and grow
11:05together with our hospitals, our medical centers that have invested, that will be investing all this
11:11kind of high technology equipments and running a smart hospital. At the same time, we allow and we
11:16promote the doctors to have a chance to build their legacy, continuously owning and running the clinical
11:23practice, right? So, when you have the commercial part, you have the retail, for example, you have the
11:30clinical practice, you have the hospitals with labs, you know, and with all these facilities. Like, for
11:35example, inside KL Mano City, we have the KL International Hospital, Sen Yang Berhad, which will, which is now
11:42building and the 1,000-bed hospital with the capacity of 1,000-bed hospital and 25 operating
11:48theatre. What does it say? 25 operating theatre. That's a lot! Most of the hospitals in Malaysia and
11:54Singapore, they only have 6 to 10 operating theatre. What does it mean? Better economies of scale,
12:00better cost and resources sharing. Exactly. And it's also about really capturing diagnostics,
12:06rehab, recovery, stay quite seamlessly within the same 20 acres, as you said. So, that's going to make
12:12a lot of difference, really, to the patient experience once they also transition into the
12:18customer-facing part. Exactly. Exactly. So, from hospital, let's say we have the hospital with the
12:22capacity of 1,000-bed. Can you imagine how many babies will be born there? So, it's logical that,
12:26for example, adjoining the hospital itself, we have a confinement centre. Fair enough. Right.
12:31So, we have the 25 operating theatres, eventually. And, of course, we have gradually opened up and
12:36utilised the more and more operating theatre itself, making it available and all that. Can you
12:41just imagine how many pain centres and pain management centres and rehab and physical centres that can be
12:46set up? Exactly. Possibilities are endless. Yes, that's right. But at this moment, though,
12:50we go into a very quick break. We'll be back right after the rest of the interview. Don't go anywhere.
12:55Right here on Niaga Spotlight.
13:15Welcome back to Niaga Spotlight. Still with me, Tamina Khoushji. And today, the focus
13:19on Niaga Spotlight is all on medical tourism and integrated healthcare cities, where
13:25Dr. Dhatu Sri, Dr. Vincent Tiu of KL Wellness City. So, Dhatu Sri, let's jump right into
13:30looking at KL Wellness City, which is also targeted for completion come Q4 of 2026. And this is right
13:37on time for MYMT 2026. Tell us a little bit more from a system-wide lens. Okay. So, basically,
13:45the phase one of KL Wellness City will be completed and operational end of this year in 2026 itself.
13:52So, notably, there's two buildings that will be ready. And one of it is actually our iconic main
13:57KL International Hospital, St. Nambahat's 1,000 billion international tertiary hospital. And this
14:04hospital, from the very first day it's designed, it will have the positioning and the capacity to draw
14:09more and target foreign patients. So, this is important. And yes, in line with the tagline of
14:15the MHTC and Tourism Malaysia's, Malaysia Medical Tourism Year 2026 itself. So, we see this as a
14:23starting point. Because to start operation in 2026 itself, basically, the whole ministry effort,
14:30the whole government's effort of drawing, continue to draw more foreign patients to Malaysia, be it from
14:35Singapore, or particularly from Indonesia itself, and other neighboring countries like Cambodia and
14:41India and all that. Basically, from the point of view of KL Wellness City, we will be able to complement
14:47and we'll be able to do a lot of international marketing reach and a lot of branding exercises.
14:53That is important because having a new private hospitals with the medical tourism focus, it enables
14:59us right from the start to target our services and our manpower, and more importantly, our technical
15:06and medical equipment, all that, to be among the best in Southeast Asia. So, to do that, it also means
15:11that this will benefit the Malaysians. There's cascading impacts which come to it, because the perspective
15:17can often be, Dhatu Sri, and let's correct this, if you have the capacity to, that generally what will
15:23happen is medical tourism growth will then be restraining domestic healthcare access. But properly
15:30managed, this does not necessarily have to be the case, correct? Yes, that's correct, because typically
15:35an average size of a hospital, private hospital in Malaysia, probably is between 100 to 300 beds.
15:42Okay. Right, so that's a typical size of private hospitals. There are some that is actually a very
15:46established one, there are about 300 to 500 beds. That's probably around that size. That's about right.
15:52So, but when we build a 1,000 bed hospital, and we're going to slowly grow it to 1,000,
15:56it will take years, but as the capacity grows up to 1,000, it also means that basically we're more
16:01than capable to handle the domestic demands itself. But what I'm trying to say is that with a good
16:06private hospitals, international rich kind of tertiary hospitals that we are building,
16:12the Care International itself, basically we will be able to extend such resources and facilities to the
16:18Malaysians as well. So that's another advantage. And in the Q4 this year, that you correctly
16:23mentioned, the second building, you know, phase one, it's called the Nobel Healthcare Park. Now,
16:29this is very interesting, because the Nobel Healthcare Park is a little bit like what you see in Mount
16:34Novena, Elizabeth, that kind of area there, where they brand themselves as healthcare city also.
16:38But it comprises of a couple of hospitals, and a little bit of a kind of integration and all that.
16:44Similarly, so there will be a lot of independence and private practices that promote not just the
16:50Western modern medicine practices, but our Nobel Healthcare Park will also be encouraging and
16:57bringing in the total and complementary medicine practices. So what does it mean? It will include,
17:02there will be a lot of, for example, Ayurvedic, there will be a lot of alternative and integrative
17:08medicine practices. That also includes probably like the traditional Chinese medicine practices
17:12and all that. So what does it mean eventually? You must create a channel, a platform, and where
17:17basically the modern medicines can integrate and alongside and grow together with all these
17:23complementary medicine practices, and which is carefully governed under the Ministry of Health,
17:28Malaysia's Ministry of Health as well. So what are we doing? We are encouraging the growth. You see,
17:33the strong advantage that we have now for Malaysia as a country itself, being so strong as one of the
17:40top,
17:41the top country that are generating and attracting foreign patients itself. We must continue this
17:48positioning because the other countries that you correctly pointed out, the other countries have
17:53started building and planning their healthcare city or wellness city, just like what KLM City is doing.
18:00So clarity is pretty head-to-head. Yes. But they start probably eight, ten years behind us because we are
18:07now ready to perform and be operational. But they are now planning, so they probably would need three to
18:13five years. But you can see that the governments, the respective governments of the other countries
18:17are pushing. Henceforth, it is very important that Malaysia government don't miss this chance. And it's
18:23correct. So I applaud and I think it's very good that this medical tourism year of 2026 has been launched
18:31and, uh, uh, and, and, and care when the city have a chance to be a one of the key
18:35player together to
18:36complement it. And this effort, this campaign should continue. I see it as a start because once the
18:41effort pushes, not something which ends in December, because once it starts, it will, the results, the
18:46results will not come immediately in 2026. You see the great good results of influx of more and more
18:51people from maybe from, um, uh, the Middle Eastern Europeans, as well as from Singapore and even India and
18:56Bangladesh and all that coming to Malaysia and not forgetting big, big numbers will come from China.
19:01And we already each year have more than a million from Indonesia. Let's not miss and let's not waste
19:06this chance of our strong positioning. Indonesia is still the main market for Malaysians, private
19:11hospitals. Exactly. So integrating all of these data points as well. Uh, now let's also focus a little
19:17bit on how healthcare cities like KL Wellness can actually also contribute structurally to Malaysia's
19:24GDP. And we're talking about, of course, uh, employment, upstream services to make up the whole,
19:30uh, wider picture of medical tourism per se. Okay. So basically, um, when we,
19:37with KL Wellness City, one of the key thing is actually creating job opportunities and job
19:41stability, right? When employment rises because of all the, uh, labs will be created, uh, and then there'll be
19:47a lot of medical clinics we started off. And most importantly, of course, there'll be several medical
19:52centers and hospitals within KL Wellness Cities eventually progressively. So, and that's what
19:57does this mean? This means also it is advantage and it will be an opportunity for the wellness
20:03programs, wellness communities to actually start to set up their programs or their centers in
20:09KL Wellness City. And then one of the other key elements will be like the step-down care,
20:14the retirement homes, the senior livings, the assisted livings, all these kind of services
20:19can now come together in one area and benefit from the ecosystem that KL Wellness City has created.
20:26All right. So not just in terms of physical building, but in terms of the integration of
20:30the services and also joint marketing and joint branding. See, when KL Wellness City goes internationally
20:36to do the, our, uh, foreign patients recruitment, all right, let's do our, our massive regional marketing
20:43and all that. Basically we will bring along our partners, our strategic partners, be it from the,
20:48uh, the doctors themselves or the medical centers and coming together with us to promote and the,
20:55the variety of the services that we have in the city itself. So that it means also that we will
21:01have
21:01a chance to actually grow. We will actually have a chance to invite and groom a lot of centers that
21:08come up. And, and one of the key thing is actually that in Malaysia is talking about the aging population
21:14and we're talking about the wellness packages itself. So we talk about the other streams upstream
21:18itself. Now with all these things that we are moving on, basically, uh, the, the, we believe,
21:24and we know that directly to GDP in terms of contribution over here, it also means that there
21:28will be a lot of recurring. There'll be a lot of patients that keep on coming in for follow-up
21:32cases
21:32and all that. It's not a one time. It's not a one time. It's not a one time. So it's
21:36a continuous
21:37kind of income generation. So it's also about the relationship building, which goes into maintaining
21:41it. It's a multi-layer multiplier effect. It's a multi-layer multiplier effect from the hotels,
21:45from the logistics, from the ABMB or the hospitality, um, surrounding in Kuala Lumpur,
21:51Penang, et cetera, that, that helps because all this generates income and people, they come here,
21:55they are just going to spend. And healthcare travelers, one thing for sure, they don't come alone.
21:59They don't come and do operation. You don't, one person don't fly and say, please operate me. I'll be
22:03that nine days. You're accompanied by, you're accompanied by family members. If your example,
22:07if you come from Middle East, one person that say the father comes for, uh, for the operations,
22:12for example, the whole family of five or seven of them comes together and they're here for the last
22:16next two to two to three weeks. And for example, foreign patients that we see very good,
22:20big numbers of them coming for IVF to Malaysia for IVF fertility services itself. And when they come,
22:26they stay for two months. Certainly, because it's a procedure that requires time, patience,
22:31and also follow-ups. These are income. These are income. So the key thing about the real structural
22:37contribution and impact, the positive impact to our economy is basically Malaysia, we don't have to
22:44invest too much. It is already an ongoing kind of a natural process of a, um, I call it the,
22:52um, um,
22:55strength that Malaysia has already positioned itself since the past one, two decades ago.
23:00All right. Unlike we want to do a big infrastructure project, I think Malaysia have to invest
23:04hundreds of millions of US dollars. Right now, it's more about ensuring that you connect the dots to make
23:09sure there's smoothness where you don't have the facilities, but you can be easily connected to them.
23:14All right. So perhaps as we, uh, look to landing the conversation, Dr. Sri, uh, let's talk a little
23:19bit about the fact that medical tourism though is exposed to external shocks all the way from currency
23:24volatility to also travel disruptions. So how do, um, healthcare cities then actually, um, hedge, uh,
23:32so that you are not losing out and you're also anticipating this in advance. Okay. The good
23:38point is healthcare city is not property driven. It's not a property driven project. Healthcare city
23:43is very healthcare based. And as I use one of the definitions, wellness real estate, it means it's a
23:48composition of a lot of components. So healthcare, medical treatment, it's necessity. It's not an option.
23:56If you need to do operations, you have to do it, regardless it's pandemic or etc. You can actually
24:03delay it a year or two years later, but you still need to do operations. So the other thing will
24:08be,
24:08if you come to Malaysia, it's your choice, which hospital you go to or which medical center. So
24:12eventually, like for example, in Malaysia, you come for IVF. We are the country with the best IVF in the
24:20world currently. And so all these neighboring countries, even in Europe, they will come to Malaysia.
24:24All right. So that given we have that strength. So if you talk about, uh, in terms of, um,
24:31basically drawing, uh, positioning, um, all this, I would say that, um, the key thing is making sure
24:38that our, uh, the stability of the government in terms of the policies are there. So if the
24:45continuity as well. Continuity. So when the government and the policies are right, basically,
24:51I think, and I feel basically we, we will be in the right hands. We will continue to grow. So
24:57that's
24:57not really an issue or challenge over here for Malaysia itself. Right. So that's, that's my take
25:02on that. Wonderful. That is Sri wishing you all the best with KL Wellness City for the next three
25:07quarters to come. And thank you very much for the keen insights. Thank you. Well, medical tourism
25:12growth in Malaysia will now hinge on not just discipline investment, but also credible capacity
25:17planning and healthcare ecosystems that strengthen rather than strain the wider system. Our thanks to
25:23Datho Sri, Dr. Vincent Tew, Executive Director, Branding, Sales, and Marketing, KL Wellness City for
25:28this critical discussion. That's all we have time for today. Join us next week for more economic analysis
25:33and insights. I'm Tamina Kauschi signing off for now. Here's to a productive week ahead.
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