OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has invested in "KIFMEC specific purpose company" which has been established in order to lease a hospital building to Kobe International Frontier Medical Center ("KIFMEC"). It is planned to start leasing its building to KIFMEC from September 2014.

Hyogo prefecture has been nominated as National Strategic Special Zone with an aim to promote advanced medical technology and services through the integration and collaboration among healthcare providers, R&D institutions, and manufactures.

KIFMEC will start its operation in November 2014, as a hospital that provides highly advanced medical treatment and service in liver disease and gastroenterology treatments in Kobe's Port Island which under government, industry and academic collaborations, aims to accumulate advanced medical Technology and services.

KIFMEC has appointed Dr. Koichi Tanaka, Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University as its chairman, with an aspiration to play a pivotal role in Kobe's Bio-medical innovation cluster as the international base of advanced medical technology such as living donor liver transplant surgery, and endoscopic and laparoscopic treatments.

Dr. Tanaka is active globally and is also our partner in Sing-Kobe Liver Transplant Centre Pte. Ltd. (Mitsui 49%, "SKLTC"), a clinic specializing in the treatment of liver disease and living donor liver transplant surgery, which opened in Singapore in September, 2013.

Mitsui as the shareholder of "KIFMEC specific purpose company" will support the operation of KIFMEC and its global expansion. Mitsui will align with SKLTC and utilize IHH Healthcare Bhd., ("IHH")'s network, the largest healthcare network in Asia which Mitsui invested in 2011, to introduce Japan's highly advanced medical treatment and services to the Asian region in order to contribute to the globalization of Japan's healthcare industry and to the advancement of medical treatment in Asia.