Billions to make from China couples but Malaysia still viewed as ‘backward’, says report

After China lifts one-child policy, huge market opens for Malaysia's fertility industry to tap into. Problem is, many ordinary Chinese still think Malaysia is not technologically advanced.

A fertility advertisement promising privacy protection at a hospital in Beijing. Malaysia and other countries are trying to woo millions of Chinese couples hoping to conceive their second child through the IVF procedure. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian fertility industry is preparing for an agressive campaign to woo Chinese couples hoping to conceive through the costly in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure, as Malaysia lifts visa requirements this month on medical tourists from China.

But despite high success rates and cheaper costs giving local fertility centres the competitive edge over its neighbours, many ordinary Chinese still perceive Malaysia to be economically weak and therefore lack advanced medical facilities which are critical for IVF treatments, the South China Morning Post reports.

“Their first impression is that Malaysia’s economic development is not good,” said a spokesman from Tai Orient, a medical tourism company seeking to promote Malaysia to would-be Chinese parents, as quoted by the paper.

“They ask us: since their economy is not as strong as China, how’s it possible that they are doing better in IVF? We explain the advantage of Malaysia, by showing statistics of high success rates,” he added.

What’s at stake is money from doing business with an estimated 40 million women over the age of 40 in China, who are trying to conceive their second child.

According to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), Malaysia’s IVF success rate is among the highest in the world.

“The world’s average success rate is 50%, but Malaysia’s success rate is about 65% on average,” Sherene Azli, the CEO of MHTC, told the Post.

Quoting China’s official statistics, the paper said the infertility rate for young Chinese couples rose from 3% two decades ago to some 15% in 2016.

China, the world’s most populous nation, once had a strict family planning policy where couples were allowed to only have one child, although the rules were relaxed to accommodate the traditional Chinese preference for boys in the event a couple’s first child is a girl.

The one-child policy officially ended in 2015, allowing Chinese couples to have a second child.

Aware of the significance of the policy shift, private hospitals with IVF services in Malaysia have equipped themselves to welcome Chinese couples seeking to conceive artificially.

Sherene said besides medical officers in Malaysia being fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese or Hokkien, IVF treatment in Malaysia is also more affordable than other countries, at US$5,000 (approximately RM20,000) per cycle.

That is slightly lower than the 40,000 yuan (RM23,693) charged in China, or more than triple that amount if one were to do it in the United States.

Still, Malaysia’s reputation among the Chinese remains a stumbling block.

The Post quotes a 37-year-old career woman in Shanghai who said she did not know about the availability of “cutting-edge IVF procedures” in Malaysia because she considered Malaysia as “not advanced”.

Tiffany Xiong and husband sought treatment in a Texas hospital, but she failed the first cycle.

“I am considering doing it in Shanghai or in the US again or in Japan. But definitely not Malaysia,” she told the paper. -FMT