By Faruk Zorlu and Ali Murat Alhas
ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye is aiming to become a global hub for healthcare services, the country's president said Friday.
"We are aiming to turn Türkiye into one of the hubs for healthcare services worldwide. Hopefully next year, the country will serve 1.5 million patients and is aiming to receive $10 billion in revenue from the global healthcare market," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the inauguration of the Science, Technologies, and Research Center at Istanbul’s prestigious Bogazici University.
Highlighting the importance of the country's investments in the healthcare sector, Erdogan said: "In the past, our citizens were going abroad for their diagnosis and treatment and now from all around the world, millions of patients are coming to our country and they are spending billions of dollars for their health treatment."
However, it is not enough to build hospitals, he said, "we should also be able to develop and produce medical equipment and systems."
He further said Türkiye is in the second phase of developing its healthcare facilities.
"Hopefully, (in this phase) we will focus our energy on development of those medical equipment," he said.