Indonesia Targets Rp 150 Trillion in Medical Travel Savings Through Sanur and Batam Health Zones

Two million patients drive Indonesia's healthcare push

Indonesia is targeting Rp 150 trillion in foreign exchange savings by persuading patients to receive treatment at home, alongside Rp 200 trillion in earnings from international patients, as it develops health special economic zones in Sanur, Bali, and Batam.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto outlined the ambitions at a national meeting on special economic zones at Gedung A.A. Maramis in Central Jakarta on October 21, 2026. He said around 2 million Indonesians spend about Rp 200 trillion seeking treatment abroad, including in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia.

The government's calculations assume Rp 75 million in spending for each Indonesian patient redirected to domestic care and Rp 160 million for each of 1.25 million international patients attracted to Indonesia. No deadline was given for achieving these latest targets.

Sanur offers the clearest picture of how the strategy would work. Its development combines Bali International Hospital, specialist clinics, hotels and other facilities in an area of about 41 hectares. Batam is also named in the expansion, although Airlangga's remarks provided fewer details about its medical facilities.

Indonesia wants to change both where its citizens receive care and where overseas patients spend their money. Success depends on more than opening buildings: patients must find the specialists, treatment options and service they currently travel abroad to obtain.

How the financial targets add up

Airlangga's savings calculation covers a large patient population. At Rp 75 million per person, reaching Rp 150 trillion would require redirecting 2 million patients, equivalent to the entire outbound group he cited. Attracting 1.25 million international patients spending Rp 160 million each produces the separate Rp 200 trillion revenue target.

Foreign exchange savings mean money that Indonesians would otherwise spend overseas stays in the domestic economy. Foreign exchange earnings come from overseas patients paying for services in Indonesia. Hospitals, laboratories and accommodation providers could receive that spending through different parts of a patient's visit.

Government estimates of the present outflow vary. Airlangga put it at about Rp 200 trillion, while State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir cited nearly Rp 150 trillion at Sanur's launch on June 25, 2025. An academic study describes transactions exceeding Rp 180 trillion and more than 1 million Indonesians travelling abroad annually.

Project accounts put Singapore and Malaysia's share of Indonesian medical travellers at 74%. Applied to a population of 2 million, that would represent about 1.48 million people. Those destinations are therefore both the main competition for Indonesian providers and the places whose patients the government most wants to retain.

InJourney chief executive Maya Watono has described a phased ambition for the Sanur development: curb Rp 50 trillion of outflow in its first year, then reach about Rp 200 trillion over three years through a combination of retaining Indonesian patients and attracting foreign patients. That combines two financial benefits that Airlangga's latest targets set out separately.

Sanur's plan began with smaller patient projections

The National Council for Special Economic Zones approved the Sanur proposal on July 22, 2022, at a meeting chaired by Airlangga. Its Sanur approval statement projected that 123,000 to 240,000 Indonesians who previously sought care overseas would instead receive treatment in the zone by 2030.

The council described that range as 4% to 8% of Indonesians previously travelling abroad for treatment. Through 2045, it projected cumulative foreign exchange savings of Rp 86 trillion and additional earnings of Rp 19.6 trillion. Those figures concern Sanur over specified periods, while the latest announcement covers a broader health zone strategy.

The main milestones show how the project has moved from approval to operation and wider policy ambitions:

• July 22, 2022: The national SEZ council approved the Sanur proposal and recommended its establishment through a government regulation.
• June 25, 2025: Thohir spoke at the official launch of the Sanur facilities and Bali International Hospital.
• July 2026: The Health Ministry outlined a wider technology and hospital investment programme to reduce treatment overseas.
• October 21, 2026: Airlangga presented the latest savings and international patient targets, naming Sanur and Batam.
• 2030 and 2045: The original Sanur plan sets patient diversion and cumulative financial projection milestones for these years.

What patients can find in Sanur

Bali International Hospital is the only hospital within the Sanur zone. It covers more than 67,000 square metres and offers six specialist services: cardiology, oncology, neurology, gastroenterology, hepatology and orthopaedics. These cover the heart, cancer, the nervous system, the digestive system, the liver, and bones and joints.

The hospital's services are supported by partnerships with institutions in Australia, Japan and Singapore. The 2022 government plan also recorded a commitment by PT Pertamina Bina Medika, known as IHC, to build an international hospital in cooperation with Mayo Clinic.

Sanur's wider development is intended to bring together medical care, recovery accommodation and tourism. Planned services include fertility treatment, eye care, care for older people, aesthetic surgery and stem cell facilities. The original plan also included a botanical garden focused on medicinal plants, a commercial centre and facilities for meetings, conferences and exhibitions.

Two hotels form part of the hospitality setting: the Bali Beach Hotel, which opened in 1966, and the Meru Sanur Hotel. For patients travelling with relatives or staying through recovery, accommodation becomes part of the cost and practical organisation of treatment.

InJourney Hospitality chief executive Christine Hutabarat said the company spent about three years reviewing more than 300 clinics while choosing partners. That process included meeting doctors and assessing their capabilities, placing the selection of medical providers alongside construction as a major part of the project.

Doctors and licences are central to the strategy

Indonesia faces a shortage of about 70,000 specialist doctors. The health zones aim to draw on foreign professionals and Indonesians trained overseas, while allowing domestic doctors to work with international colleagues.

International doctors, nurses and allied health professionals have been able to obtain licences to practise in Sanur, with those permissions restricted to the zone under the arrangements described for the project. Airlangga's October announcement called for simpler practice licensing for both Indonesian and foreign health workers in health SEZs.

Noel Yeo, Bali International Hospital's chief of commercial and operations, explained why access to international professionals matters to its intended patients:

Many of the outbound Indonesian medical health seekers, they leave the country precisely to access professionals like this,

Rio Marnoto, an Indonesian vascular surgeon at the hospital who trained in Germany, described the difficulty that doctors trained overseas previously faced when trying to practise in Indonesia. He said returning professionals could help bring international systems into domestic care.

Airlangga also called for regulatory support for diagnostic centres and stem cell research, and urged the Health Ministry to accelerate revisions covering facilities and incentives in health SEZs. Diagnostic centres provide tests that help doctors identify disease and choose treatment. Stem cell research studies cells that can develop into specialised types, with different applications requiring their own scientific and regulatory assessment.

Why patients choose treatment abroad

Patient trust is a major challenge for the investment programme. A qualitative study published through Universitas Indonesia's scholarly platform, Why Indonesians Travel Abroad, interviewed 18 people connected with Makassar, Surabaya and Batam, including patients receiving care in Singapore and Malaysia.

The researchers identified five influences on travel decisions: recommendations from other people, dissatisfaction with domestic medical services, previous experience of treatment abroad, family influence and medical referrals. Distrust of Indonesian healthcare services was the strongest influence within the interviews.

Participants described dissatisfaction with treatment plans, interactions between doctors and patients, and the healthcare system. Negative experiences at home combined with positive experiences abroad, encouraging patients to return overseas and recommend those services to others.

The study used detailed interviews to understand personal decisions, and its authors said complete data saturation could not be definitively established. In plain terms, they could not be certain that further interviews would stop producing new themes. Their recommendation was to improve the patient experience.

For a hospital trying to retain Indonesian patients, that means the consultation matters alongside the equipment. A patient needs to understand the diagnosis, the proposed treatment and what happens next. Family members and previous patients also influence whether someone feels comfortable choosing a domestic provider.

Investment extends beyond the tourism zones

The Health Ministry's broader programme targets hospitals and technologies across Indonesia. Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Rizka Andalucia has described plans to upgrade hospitals in 66 districts and cities without a type C, or intermediate level, hospital, while equipping leading hospitals with more advanced technology.

Four priority areas are cancer, heart disease, stroke, and urology and nephrology, which cover the urinary system and kidneys. The ministry identifies these as major reasons Indonesians seek treatment abroad. Planned technologies include robotic surgery, artificial intelligence, genomics and proton therapy.

Robotic surgery lets surgeons control specialised instruments during an operation. Genomics examines genetic information that can help guide diagnosis or treatment. Proton therapy uses proton beams to deliver radiation against cancer; the ministry described it as a service not yet available in Indonesia when outlining the programme.

Private hospitals are also investing in robotic surgery and nuclear medicine, which uses radioactive substances for diagnosis or treatment. The ministry wants simpler investment rules, joint ventures and transfers of technology to support expansion. A partnership between Kalbe Farma and GE HealthCare is already producing CT scanners in Indonesia.

National Health Account figures put healthcare spending at Rp 613 trillion in 2023, Rp 630 trillion in 2024 and an estimated Rp 660 trillion in 2025. The increase from 2023 to the 2025 estimate is Rp 47 trillion, or about 7.7%. Medical tourism investment is therefore developing alongside a larger rise in domestic health spending and efforts to fill basic gaps in hospital access.

Foreign patients and jobs shape the next stage

Sanur is targeting patients from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Europe, North America, other ASEAN countries and the Middle East. Project officials say 40% of Bali International Hospital's registered patients are Indonesian and 60% are foreign, representing more than 30 nationalities.

The international share gives the hospital an existing base to build on as Indonesia seeks a place in Southeast Asia's medical tourism market. That market has been valued at more than US$48 billion, with expected annual growth exceeding 12%. Sanur's combination of medical services and accommodation places it in competition for both treatment spending and the longer visits that may accompany care.

Employment projections also operate on different scales. The national SEZ council's 2022 proposal listed investment of Rp 10.2 trillion and a target of 43,647 jobs. Project officials later described an expectation of 12,000 jobs over three years as medical and hospitality services expand.

Thohir said at the June 2025 launch that the government wanted to replicate Sanur's model in other regions. He also called for cooperation with Danantara chief executive Rosan Perkasa Roeslani to support investment over the longer term, with the state investment body focused on operations and sustainable investment.

Sanur's immediate task is to turn its facilities, licensing changes and partnerships into a service patients choose repeatedly. Batam's inclusion widens the government's ambition, while hospital upgrades elsewhere address needs beyond the medical tourism market. Together, those efforts link the effort to retain spending with the practical question facing each patient: where they can obtain the care they need.

Key Points

• Airlangga targets Rp 150 trillion in savings from retaining Indonesian patients and Rp 200 trillion in earnings from international patients.
• The savings calculation assumes 2 million patients spending Rp 75 million each; the earnings target assumes 1.25 million visitors spending Rp 160 million each.
• Sanur combines Bali International Hospital, specialist services and accommodation; Batam is also part of the health zone strategy.
• Simpler licensing aims to attract Indonesian and foreign medical professionals amid a shortage of about 70,000 specialists.
• A study of patient experiences identified distrust, service dissatisfaction and personal recommendations as major influences on treatment abroad.
• The original Sanur plan has milestones for 2030 and 2045. The latest national financial targets have no announced deadline.