Seoul Medical Center said Friday that it has signed an agreement to export its public healthcare platform to Turkmenistan. The deal is one of the contracts related to the government's new northern policy.

Seoul Medical Center Director Kim Min-ki (left) and Minister of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan Gurbanmammet Ylyasov hold up their agreement at the Yyldyz Hotel in Turkmenistan on Tuesday.

Seoul Medical Center will exchange information and technology in the fields of healthcare and medical industry, develop cooperative measures for the healthcare industry, particularly in the field of clinical and basic medical research, with Turkmenistan.

Although Turkmenistan has the fourth richest natural gas reserves in the world, it has a significant medical inequality with most of its medical infrastructure concentrated in the capital city of Ashgabat. The central Asian country plans to use Seoul’s public health system as a method to solve the medical divide.

Seoul Medical Center has a long history of cooperating with countries such as China, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar since 2011 and has spread its public health system to hospitals in these countries.

The program provides a variety of on-the-job training programs, including local medical services and medical technology transfers.

“The Korean-style public health platform is a specialized model for transferring accumulated know-how on various public health care projects, civil health policies, and stable management and operation of large public hospitals in Korea to fit the conditions of the country that lack such a platform,” a Seoul Medical Center official said.

In line with the government's new northern policy, the center will actively cooperate with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to help the people of Turkmenistan enjoy the Korean public health service,” Seoul Medical Center Director Kim Min-ki said.

“We will transfer all know-how required by the local medical institutions such as medical technology and public health policy implementation capacity that Seoul Medical Center has accumulated over the years,” he said.

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