Unilateral cancellation of visas helps health tourism
deputy Tourism In the consensus meeting for the development of international health services, which was held at the Ministry of Health, while explaining the achievements of the 13th government in the field of health tourism, he said: In the 13th government, the vision that was between all the institutions caused good things to happen in the form of the council with inter-departmental synergy. A health tourism strategy should be formed.
Emphasizing the need to support the official network of health tourism activists, he said: This was our strategic directive and good supporting approvals were included in the laws and regulations, for example in the draft bill to amend the law on direct taxes, activities in the field of tourism and Health tourism was exempted from direct taxes. On the other hand, the acceptable tax cost of advertising and introduction of health tourism capacities was put on the agenda, which was extended to hospitals with IPD.
The vice president of tourism continued: Now, most of the hospitals have the problem that if their advertising costs exceed a certain percentage, the tax auditor will not accept this issue, but according to the recent decree, it was decided that 100% of these costs will be included in the tax acceptable dimension. According to another resolution, it was decided that the incomes of the tourism sector should be considered exports, and according to this resolution, after 13 years with the support of the Trade Development Organization, the export awards of the tourism sector were revived, and according to this strategic policy, a separate chapter was given to health tourism. which was paid
He described another supportive step of his respective ministry in line with the development of health tourism as follows: The Trade Development Organization, at our request, took measures to support participation in tourism exhibitions in order to bear some of the expenses of attending the exhibitions.
Shalbafian added: In this government, we had another resolution entitled supporting the employment of border residents to strengthen hospital centers with IPD in provinces such as Kurdistan, Kermanshah, etc., and in this regard, the governors were also obliged to support them as per their discretion. They can allocate up to 20% of their capital asset acquisition credit in the form of technical and credit assistance for various sectors, including tourism.
The vice president of tourism emphasized: In the field of marketing, we have two successful experiences with the friends of the Ministry of Health in this government. Out of 10 tourism exhibition halls, one hall was completely dedicated to health tourism, and more than 10 universities of medical sciences and more than 70 medical centers have IPD. They participated in this conference, which was a very good experience. Also, in the field of introducing health tourism capabilities, apart from the efforts made in the Ministry of Health, we also published health tourism content in the form of brochures in seven languages, and at the same time, tours were held to introduce other countries, and in the recent case, a tour from the country. Russians traveled to Iran with the aim of familiarizing themselves with medical centers.
He added: Another step was the formation of the health tourism system, which was done in line with the support of the official network of health tourism activists. This system will be such that it is clear how the patient enters the country and at which point he will be treated. Currently, all the processes of this system have been completed to connect to the system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all of these become a reference to strengthen the official network of health tourism activists.
Referring to the elimination of parallelism in the field of health tourism, Shalbafian said: All the involved institutions should work in their specific field.