China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has brought more opportunities for the world's service businesses, among which medical help is a considerable portion.

International SOS, which started its business in China in 1989, is trying to expand its service network to better cater to the needs of increasing numbers of foreigners coming into the country as well as Chinese seeking better medical services.

"China's WTO entry means a big increase in foreign investment, and more companies will send staff here," said Arnaud Vaissie, company president. "The need for emergency assistance will rise sharply."

Other overseas medical companies are also squeezing into the growing market. There are more than a dozen clinics in Beijing with overseas investment. Nationwide, the number has reached nearly 200, according to official statistics.

Although most of their clients are foreigners, an increasing number of local Chinese, not satisfied with domestic medical services, are seeking help from these agencies, creating a huge potential market.

Vaissie said his company is planning an alarm center in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, to bolster its service capacity in the country's western region.

The company has already set up three 24-hour alarm centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and opened clinics in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Taipei.

It also has established cooperative relationships with more than 150 major hospitals across China.

"Even if a client of ours is in a remote area such as Tibet, he or she can have convenient access to medical treatment in our local cooperative hospitals there," he said.

The company wants its clients to get a better understanding of China's medical system, "which is now quite sound," said He Jingbin, deputy general manager of International SOS' Beijing clinic.

One of the company's partners in Beijing is the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital, which receives more than 500 patients a year from the International SOS' Beijing clinic.

"Our hospital can offer technical support to the SOS clinic since it is hard for the clinic to carry out systematic and complicated treatment," said Yan Xiangjian, deputy director of the hospital's medical affairs department.

(China Daily February 7, 2002)