Mitsubishi joins forces with Myanmar firms to build $90m hospital

Japan’s biggest trading company Mitsubishi Corporation has unveiled plans to build a general hospital in Yangon with two Myanmar partners as part of a strategy targeting the growing medical services market.

Mitsubishi has agreed to form a joint venture with Yee Shin Holdings and Capital Diamond Star Group for the project and the hospital was due to open by 2020, the multinational said in a statement released in Tokyo on March 28.

Mitsubishi said it would have a 30 percent stake in the joint venture, with the balance shared between Mandalay-based Yee Shin and Yangon-based CDSG.

The Nikkei Asia Review reported that the Yangon hospital, to cost about US$90.4 million, was the first of 10 planned for Myanmar and would have 300-beds, of which 70 percent would be in private rooms.

It would be part of an integrated project known as Capital City, which would include a condominium and shopping mall, to be built on a 9,300 square metre site about 10 kilometres from downtown Yangon, said the NAR.

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Mitsubishi said Capital City would be developed by a subsidiary of CDSG, and the medical facility would be managed by Yee Shin, which operates two general hospitals in Mandalay and is involved in other health care businesses.

Mitsubishi said it would complement the roles of CDSG and Yee Shin by providing Japanese quality medical care to the joint venture.

The hospital would recruit some Japanese staff but mainly employ Myanmar doctors recruited from within the country or abroad, the NAR said.

It said the project was a rare example of a Japanese trading house seeking to establish health care facilities from scratch. “Mitsubishi’s rivals had tried to expand their Asian presence by investing in existing companies and hospitals,” it said.

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