2019. 3. 22. How Korea Republic Is Promoting Relations With Nigeria Through Entertainment, Culture Others — Leadership Newspaper
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How Korea Republic Is Promoting Relations With Nigeria Through Entertainment, Culture Others
By Anthony Ada Abraham Abuja - 4 days ago
For many who don’t know about the marriage of these countries, Nigeria/Korea relations has dated back to the 1980. From Culture ,entertainment, health , technology and even traditional medicine, these have been some of the basic ingredients that has foster ties between both countries.
For entertainment known as Korean Wave which is now a phenomenon in Nigeria and (Abuja in particular) has become a craze amongst youths and adults alike.
Just recently, the newly appointed Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Lee In Tae said he is ready to open more opportunities for Nigeria and Nigerians with the help of his country. Ambassador Tae proffer suggestions on the state of economy , medical tourism, traditional medicine and Korea Wave (KPop) which is the export of Korean entertainment.
Explaining further on the relationship and benefits of Korean Wave which includes
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K-pop, K-beauty, and K-fashion, he believes that the similarity between both countries can never be over emphasised.
He said: “K-pop, K-beauty, and K-fashion, are emerging as hot trends in many countries worldwide today and Korean pop culture is spreading rapidly across the globe. Thanks to Korean TV series, movies and beauty products, the number of international medical tourists visiting Korea for beauty and traditional medicine treatment or experience has been on steady rise.
“Since 2016, K Beauty has become
somewhat of a phenomenon, with women all over the world looking to achieve that luminous glow.
The pursuit of beauty can be found across socio-economic classes. Korea and Nigeria have always enjoyed a cordial and friendly relationship since
we established diplomatic ties in 1980,” Ambassador Lee In Tae stressed.
In addition to fostering the bond, by 2020, Nigeria and Korea would mark their 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations, and with an improved cooperation in the health care industry.
Speaking on traditional Medicine in Korea he said it has its own treatments, hospitals and
prescriptions that is comparable with western medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also recognised “hanbang,” or traditional Korean medicine, as ,valid medicine.
“Traditional Korean medicine involves identifying the physical
constitution of each patient, and finding the right (customized) care and prescription accordingly.
Traditional Korean medicine also prefers more natural treatments, such as herbal medicines, acupuncture, and moxibustion, over artificial drug regimens of antibiotics and painkillers,” he explained.
According to Ambassador Tae, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), has estimated that about 30,000 Nigerians spend up to a whooping $1 billion on medical tourism per annum and about 60 per cent of this amount is spent in the healthcare areas of cardiology, orthopedics, renal dialysis issues and cancer.
“I have observed that indigenous pharmaceuticals companies’ healthcare
medical centres in Nigeria are only able to meet about 45 per cent of the demand for drugs and medical equipment which provides an avenue for import substitution.
“Nigeria with its massive population and lack of a robust national health insurance framework, has become a major source market for medical tourism. In Nigeria, there is
obviously a ready market of its citizens seeking high quality medical care with the requisite purchasing power.
“In one year as an Ambassador, I have had the chance to meet with government personnels, international organisations and doctors who work in Nigeria’s health care field. What they told me was though Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa,
Nigeria’s health industry infrastructure is not developed enough and asked me how Korea has developed itself in both its economy and health care industry.
“Also, I noticed that when Nigerian experts come back from Korea, they seemed fascinated about Korea’s cosmetics and medical tourism. In this instance, I would like to introduce Korea’s health care industry to Nigeria, ” he explained.
Explaining further, the Ambasador has promised to introduce health care to Nigeria and Nigerians for healthy and first-class medical care.
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” Korea’s Health Industry statistics has consistently ranked amongst the top five countries for quality healthcare provision by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development(OECD) and Bloomberg.
“The country is ranked first by the OECD for healthcare access and rated as the fourth most efficient healthcare system in the world by Bloomberg. The quality of Korean healthcare has been ranked as being among the world’s best. Satisfaction of healthcare has also been consistently among the highest in the world,” he said adding that “According to ‘2018 OECD Health Statistics’, Korea’s Life expectancy was 82.4years, infant mortality rate was 2.8 among 1000 which is 1.1 less than OECD country’s average, Current Health Expenditure(% of gross domestic product) is 7.6 per cent which is 1.3 per cent less than OECD country’s average(8.9 per cent),” he revealed.
For Medical Technology, he also pointed out the significants of Korea as an emerging new leader on the global healthcare market through
advanced medical technologies, cutting-edge hardware and IT-based infrastructure.
“Hospitals in Korea boasts of excellent medical practitioners and facilities. The
Korean government has a strict regulation over hospitals to ensure optimum medical services.
Korea’s hospitals put the safety and satisfaction of patients ahead of profits. The OECD statistics count only hospitals, and do not reflect statistics concerning clinics, dental clinics, traditional herbal medicine clinics, and midwifery centers common in Korea.
“The number of hospital beds per 1,000 population is about 13.55, well above the OECD countries’
average of 5 and hospitals dominate the health system, ” he said.
Also, In 2017, Korea has 120,630 doctors and 355,524 nurses as practicing physicians. Example is the Korea’s Plastic surgery industry, the country also became a major producer and exporter of fillers and botox. With 650,000 operations performed annually.
Korea is ranked seventh place in terms of absolute number of plastic surgery operations performed each year, as opposed to the United States
where plastic surgery is most frequently performed (3,110,000 annually). When these numbers are converted into the per-population ratio, however, the rankings are reversed.
With 13.5 plastic surgery operations performed for every 1,000, Korea
tops the rankings, followed by Greece (12.5 per 1,000), Italy (11.6 per 1,000), and the United States (9.9 per 1,000).
Affordable Medical Costs in Korea is another aspect where patients can receive high quality of health care and treatments at affordable prices through cutting-edge hardware and infrastructure.
Medical costs in
Korea are only 20-30% of those in the United States while medical services are still on a similarly high level. For example, liver transplant that costs about 575,000 USD in the United States would generally cost about 130,000 USD in Korea.
“I expect Korea and Nigeria’ s bilateral relationship to keep soaring higher in the years’ ahead, Ambassador Lee In Tae concluded.
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