By The Star Staff
At-large Sen. Keren Riquelme Cabrera on Monday made a commitment to Aibonito Mayor William “Willie” Alicea Pérez to promote medical tourism as a source of economic activity in the central mountain municipality.
“The municipality of Aibonito has much of the infrastructure it needs to attract medical tourism through Law 196 of 2010 (Puerto Rico Medical Tourism Law), which establishes a series of initiatives to promote Aibonito as a medical destination at the national and international level,” the New Progressive Party senator said. “This is a project that the mayor has been promoting for some time and we, from the Legislature, will support it with measures dedicated to Aibonito.”
Among the proposals are that the Puerto Rico Tourism Company design and implement a medical marketing campaign exclusively for Aibonito, as well as amending Law 168-1968, better known as the Tax Exemption Law for Hospitals, in order to increase the amount of the exemption for towns in the central part of the island.
“Our goal is to cut through the bureaucracy that causes many hospitals to give up using the platform of Law 196-2010, so that facilities such as the Mennonite Hospital in Aibonito can benefit, attracting people seeking elective surgeries, for example,” Riquelme added.
The senator highlighted that Mennonite Hospital acquired the former Federico Degetau elementary school in Aibonito with the purpose of remodeling it and converting it into a state-of-the-art medical-hospital services facility.
Riquelme and Alicea made a series of visits to Aibonito on Sunday and discussed numerous projects that have a direct impact on the residents of this municipality.
According to data from the United States Census Bureau, Aibonito has a population of 24,637 (circa 2020).
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