Global healthcare firm, International SOS, will focus more on China as its client base in the country expands, its CEO said last month.

Arnaud Vaissie, the firm's president and CEO, said during a visit here: "China is a key engine in the company's development scheme half of our clients are Chinese."

More and more Chinese firms are going overseas, and workers are being sent to remote places where medical services are poor, he said.

SOS also caters to the outbound domestic tourism market, as visitors usually ask for medical services in their own language, he said.

More than 40 million Chinese are forecast to travel overseas this year.

"This is just a start," Vaissie said.

"It is very different from two decades ago, when the company's mission in China was just to help foreigners."

Now, the business is planning to introduce the most advanced systems for handling medical emergencies, the CEO claimed.

"New tele-medicine infrastructure will be available in the near future, allowing doctors at any of our 45 remote clinics in China to obtain real-time support from our team of 60 doctors at our alarm center and our clinic in Beijing," Vaissie said.

The firm recently relocated its Beijing office, and now has its 24-hour clinic, emergency department and alarm center all under one roof, he said.

The global business has also signed a letter of intent with the Beijing Red Cross Society to extend their joint venture for another 15 years, Vaissie said.

(China Daily November 6, 2008)