MELAKA, March 22 – Hatten Land Ltd and Quantum Healthcare Ltd have signed a strategic partnership agreement to establish a specialist outpatient care centre at Hatten Land’s Imperio Mall in Melaka.
As anchor tenant of the eight-storey mall, Quantum Healthcare will take up at least 180,000 square feet of space in three floors for medical specialists, aesthetic doctors, and F&B brands. It will retain some of the space for its own office use.
To be called Quantum Specialist Centre, the facility is expected to open in phases from the second half of 2023. It marks Quantum Healthcare’s maiden foray into medical tourism and its first overseas expansion. Dentistry currently accounts for all of Quantum Healthcare’s revenue.
Quantum Healthcare aims to earn recurring income from managing Quantum Specialist Centre, which will be the newest health care facility in Melaka once it opens. Melaka, a UNESCO world heritage site, is also home to several established health care groups such as Mahkota Medical Centre, Pantai Hospital Ayer Keroh, Putra Specialist Hospital,and Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Centre.
Having made a name for itself as a health care hub, Melaka is well-suited to be a regional specialist outpatient care centre, especially now that inter-state and cross-border travel has resumed with Covid-19 restrictions out of the way, according to Quantum Healthcare chief executive officer Thomas Tan.
“Melaka is one of several health care hubs in Malaysia and the federal government is stepping up efforts to further promote the country as one of the leading medical tourism markets in Asia. Besides Malaysians, we want Quantum Specialist Centre to also target Singaporeans and Indonesians. By our estimates, this centre can potentially cater to a catchment area of at least 24 million people – from Singapore, parts of Malaysia and Medan, the capital of North Sumatra in Indonesia,” said Tan.
According to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, an agency under the Ministry of Health, revenue from Malaysia’s medical tourism sector is projected to rise to about RM1.7 billion in 2025 from less than RM1 billion in each of the last three years.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, revenue from the sector increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.3 per cent from 2015 to 2019.
Melaka is not only one of the top tourism sites in Malaysia. It is also a popular medical tourism destination in the country. Pre-pandemic, about 160,000 tourists visited Melaka yearly for health care services.
Hatten Land is a leading real estate developer in Melaka’s property market. The company’s portfolio comprises prime properties strategically located in key areas of the city.
By collaborating with government agencies and established industry leaders, Hatten Land has transformed its properties into dynamic destinations that cater to a diverse range of needs and preferences.
Completed in 2019 with a total net lettable area of approximately 350,000 square feet, Imperio Mall is the retail portion of the mixed-use 3.5-acre Imperio@Hatten City.
Hatten City is an integrated seafront project in Melaka by Hatten Land comprising six developments spanning retail, residential, commercial, and hospitality.
These include two luxury condominiums, a five-star hotel with more than 270 rooms managed by DoubleTree by Hilton, and ElementX Mall, an immersive E-sports hub.
Health care and wellness travellers have been observed to generally stay longer and spend more per trip than the average tourist.
With Hatten City’s large-scale integrated health care, hospitality and retail components, there are more opportunities to drive new value creation and increase footfall within Hatten City to cater to the growing needs of medical and wellness tourists and their entourage, according to Colin Tan, executive chairman and managing director of Hatten Land.
“Medical tourism is an important economic driver, and supported by its strong tourism base, Melaka is shaping up to become a key medical tourism hub, targeting the mass market segment with comprehensive and affordable medical services by skilled practitioners.
“Building a brand-new medical hospital requires significant investment and time, and with the continued push towards telemedicine and outpatient procedures, retail malls are an increasingly attractive locations for medical and health care services, offering convenience for patients and service providers.
“Aligned with this trend, Imperio Mall has been repositioned as a medical mall and we aim to work closely with Quantum Healthcare to add compelling value and choice for customers in their health care and wellness journey.
“Together, we aim to enhance Melaka’s status as a medical tourism hub, contribute to the state’s economic growth and generate more job opportunities for the locals,” he added.
