Materia Medica Malaysiana

Saudi, Malaysian Firms Sign Joint Venture Deal in Health Care

JEDDAH, 22 July 2004 — A major joint venture agreement in the field of health care was signed yesterday between Saudi Arabia’s Al-Sharif Group and Malaysia’s Pantai Medivest.

“Both parties believe that the Saudi health care market is large and stable. The market is looking for quality services, which we intend to provide,” said Abdulaziz Al-Naser, CEO of Al-Sharif Group, after signing the agreement with Azman Ibrahim, managing director of Pantai Medivest.

“We wish to benefit from the strong experience and expertise of Pantai and emulate their success in the Saudi market,” he added.

Naim Abdul Rahman, Malaysian vice consul and assistant trade commissioner, and Zalizam Zakaria, director (overseas) Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, based in Jeddah witnessed the signing.

Al-Sharif Fayez said that with the increasing need for better health care facilities and services in the Kingdom, Al-Sharif Group has decided to take a major leap in the sector with Pantai.

His group searched for about three years for the right partner. Pantai have seven hospitals in Malaysia — in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Melaka, Perak and Penang — with a total capacity of some20 , 000beds.

Al-Sharif Group plans to build two hospitals — one in Makkah and another in Madinah, each with200 -bed capacity.

“We are a comprehensive private health care provider, the largest in Malaysia, and hope that with this joint venture we will be able to explore, together with Al-Sharif Group, all aspects of the health care market, particularly hospitals and management in the Kingdom,” explained Ibrahim.

Established 29 years ago, Pantai has grown to include hospitals and clinical support services such as laboratory and blood bank services, clinical waste disposal, hospital maintenance, cleaning and laundry services, nursing school, and health tourism.

Al-Sharif Fayez said the group also planned to build a medical institute to train Saudis in all areas of hospital requirements including x-rays, laboratory work and blood banks.

“We want to contribute to the Saudi economy, provide jobs for locals, and with the best of health care available locally, encourage people to stay in the Kingdom for medical treatment.”

He said Al-Sharif Group, established nearly two decades ago, has diversified from trading and construction into such areas as electrical power generation plants, and distribution systems, property, commercial centers and health care