“This will be the destination for Indonesians who used to go to Singapore [or] Malaysia for check up, they can just go to Bali instead. Bali will be on par with Singapore,” Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir said during a program aired on Metro TV on Tuesday. 

Talks of developing medical tourism in Indonesia have been quite high on the agenda lately, such as the Indonesian Medical Tourism Board’s (IMTB) plan to attract more domestic tourists to visit the island for various medical services and the Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry announcing in August that they are studying the potential of developing this industry. 

Citing a report issued by PwC, Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry spokesman Jodi Mahardi previously said that around 600,000 Indonesians sought medical treatments overseas in 2015, which is the highest figure in the world. 

This week, Erick said that tourism can be synergized with health services, further adding that Bali can also be turned into a training center for doctors and nurses. It appears that the current plan is to develop supporting facilities for such a purpose with Japanese partners. 

“So that we can upgrade our services and quality in terms of health. We hope that it can turn into a training center for our doctors and nurses,” Erick said. 

“Until 2045, Japan needs 750,000 nurses, and in 2025 they need about 120,000. This is an opportunity we must not miss, and if we can cooperate with Japan to develop the facilities [in Indonesia], this can be a win-win situation,” he added

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