Macedonia Plans Hospitals for Wealthy Foreigners

Macedonia Health Minister Nikola Todorov said the country plans to open a “health-care zone”, most likely near the capital, Skopje, where foreign companies will be able to build hospitals exclusively for use of foreign private patients.

Serious partners who create new jobs and pledge to stay at least ten years will find Macedonia a generous host, the minister said.

“Interested companies will need to have a certain level of experience and meet a certain level of quality," he added.

"Macedonia will provide a package of benefits including regional assistance and meeting up to 50 per cent of the investment cost, or the cost of opening new jobs,” Todorov continued.

The new hospitals and their employees will not be required to pay any income tax for ten years, Todorov explained. Exemptions from VAT and from customs taxes on imported medical and other equipment will also be put in place.

If the investors also open medical training facilities, where both Macedonian and foreign doctors can work and be schooled, the state will prolong the package of benefits up to 15 years.

“All companies investing in this zone will have to implement modern methods of treatment, prevention and diagnostics of illnesses that have not been previously used in Macedonia,” Todorov noted.

Macedonians and patients from neighboring Kosovo will not be allowed to use the facilities, he warned. Kosovo nationals are the most frequent foreign users of medical facilities in Macedonia.

Todorov said that the ban was neessary in order to protect existing private medical facilities in the country that benefit from the steady flow of patients from Kosovo.

Todorov said the location for the planned zone near Skopje will be...