Cuba sees huge potential in medical tourism

Cuba sees huge potential in medical tourism
By Xu Qin | 00:01 UTC+8 June 7, 2017 | PRINT EDITION

ANY talk of Cuba conjures up images of sun-kissed beaches, scintillating
music, culture, traditions and a history that continues to unfold even
now, but the Caribbean island nation’s top envoy in China is keen that
visitors from the mainland take in a dose of medical tourism as well.

“One of the strengths of Cuba is health tourism,” Miguel Angel Ramirez
Ramos, the Cuban ambassador in China, told Shanghai Daily after
delivering a talk at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Think Tank
Foundation. “Cuba has made important strides in the field of
biotechnology and health care. We have competitive advantage in this area.”

In 2000, one of the best-known names in the world of sports, Argentine
football legend Diego Maradona, traveled to Cuba to seek treatment for
drug addiction. Since then, the island nation has become one of the
medical destinations for Americas, looking for affordable healthcare in
sunnier climate.

“In fact, these days the Chinese are going to the US, but the Americans
are going to Cuba for medicinal tourism,” the ambassador said.

“There are groups coming for disease treatments. Not only because they
are only available in Cuba, or they may be somewhere else, but in Cuba
they are cheaper. They get better results… I believe this is an
important area in tourism,” the ambassador said.

According to International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ), Servimed, a
state-owned company, offers foreigners access to the 16 Cuban hospitals
and clinics that provide more than 100 types of health services on the
island.

Few weeks ago, the Cuban Minister of Public Health, Dr Roberto Morales
Ojeda, told a WHO assembly in Geneva that by the end of 2016, Cuba had
achieved a life expectancy of 78.45 years. He also said that Cuba was
the first country to officially eliminate mother-to-child transmission
of HIV and syphilis way back in 2015.

But the Cuban envoy in China was also clear that general tourists were
equally welcome.

“There are lots of facilities for the Chinese tourists to go to Cuba,”
Ramos said. “They will be surprised to see how friendly we are,
particularly how friendly we are to the Chinese people, because we have
a strong historical connection with China that goes back to 170 years
ago. In fact, we are going to celebrate in June the 170th anniversary of
the first arrival of Chinese coolies to Cuba.

“We have a monument in the middle of Havana, celebrating the
Cuban-Chinese,” he said.

The monument in Havana is carved with the words of 19th century Cuban
General, Gonzalo de Quesada, “No hubo un chino cubano desertor, No hubo
un chino cubano traidor” (There was not a single Chinese Cuban deserter,
nor a single Chinese Cuban traitor).

The monument was erected to commemorate the participation of thousands
of Chinese plantation workers in the struggle for Cuban independence.

“They were brought to Cuba on contracts. They were tricked or covered by
recruitment agents to substitute other resources for labor. The moment
they realized they were cheated, they rose up in rebellion. They
immediately took part in the independence war against Spanish colonial
rule. Most of them were male so they mixed with the local population.

“Now in Cuba we have many Chinese descendants who intermingled with the
local population.”

China’s presence is kept alive by descendants of that period, through
societies and various manifestations. They are also present in the
consumption of rice and other culinary traditions of the Island.

The influence of these immigrants served as a link to maintain the
economic exchanges between Chinese and Cubans, as well as to keep the
germs of cultural interconnection, said Ramos.

“China is present in almost all sectors of Cuban economy. It is
widespread and we are encouraging that it should be in that way. The
cooperation not only comes because of the quality, the technology, the
facilities on prices, but also financing support of the infrastructures
of course.

“We have cooperation plans with China in the area of biotechnology. For
a small country like Cuba, it is safer for Cuba to export technology not
just raw material, sugar or cigar, which we are also exporting to China.
We are keen on exporting high-tech to China because these are all new
products developed by Cuban scientists.

“There will (also) be strong opportunity of cooperation in the area of
information, computing. We are providing very favorable conditions to
the Chinese as well as the rest of the world,” he said.

Source: Cuba sees huge potential in medical tourism | Shanghai Daily –
www.shanghaidaily.com/business/biz-special/Cuba-sees-huge-potential-in-medical-tourism/shdaily.shtml