Prabowo’s "Souvenir" from Pakistan: Doctors and Health Professors Set to Enter Indonesia

Jakarta – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto returned from a state visit to Pakistan this week with what many in Jakarta are calling an unexpected but strategic “souvenir”: a political commitment from Islamabad to send doctors, dentists, medical professors and health experts to help plug Indonesia’s chronic shortage of medical personnel.

The pledge, announced in a joint appearance with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on December 9, 2025, is framed as part of a broader cooperation package in health, higher education and trade between the two of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nations. While the exact number of incoming personnel has yet to be specified, officials on both sides describe the move as “without delay” and “strategic” for Indonesia’s health system.

A Political Visit with a Health Dividend

During a joint press conference at the Prime Minister’s residence in Islamabad, Prabowo publicly thanked Pakistan for agreeing to send medical personnel to Indonesia, highlighting his government’s “vast need” for doctors and dentists as it ramps up medical education and health services nationwide. He described Pakistan’s support as “strategic and critical,” tying the initiative directly to his flagship plan to expand domestic training of health workers.

For Islamabad, the offer is being presented as part of a diplomatic push to deepen ties with Southeast Asia and leverage Pakistan’s long-established medical education sector, which produces thousands of doctors each year for both domestic needs and overseas employment. Sharif said Pakistan would “happily” send doctors, dentists, medical professors and other experts to Indonesia as part of cooperation to help Indonesia build a “large number” of medical colleges and universities.

Indonesia’s Deepening Doctor Shortage

Indonesia’s need for foreign medical personnel is rooted in long‑standing structural gaps. With a population of around 282 million people as of 2025, the country has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios in the G20.

According to the World Health Organization, Indonesia had roughly 0.8 physicians per 1,000 inhabitants in recent years—well below the global average of 1.8 and far from the 2.3 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1,000 people threshold often cited as the minimum for delivering essential health services. The maldistribution is sharper outside Java, where remote districts struggle to attract specialists and even general practitioners.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has acknowledged that the country is still short of tens of thousands of doctors and dentists, even after accelerated recruitment under President Joko Widodo and reforms to expand specialist training. Indonesia also faces a projected rise in non‑communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, which will further strain physician capacity over the next decade.

Pakistan’s Export of Medical Expertise

Pakistan’s offer aligns with its reputation as a regional exporter of health professionals. The country hosts more than 70 medical colleges and produces thousands of new doctors annually; in 2022, over 11,000 Pakistani physicians were registered to work abroad through its Overseas Employment Corporation, many in the Gulf and Western countries.

Sending doctors and academic staff to Indonesia would, in effect, reorient some of that outward flow towards a fellow developing country. Pakistani officials say the cooperation will initially be focused on lecturers, clinical supervisors and senior specialists who can help Indonesia train a new generation of health workers and set up medical faculties. The arrangement is framed less as a temporary “import” of doctors and more as a transfer of knowledge to build Indonesia’s long‑term capacity.

Building Medical Colleges, Fast

Prabowo has repeatedly signaled that expanding medical and dental education will be a central plank of his domestic agenda. In his joint statement with Sharif, he spoke of “a massive education program” to produce more doctors and dentists and explicitly linked Pakistan’s contribution to his plan to build a “large number” of medical colleges and universities. For Indonesia, where capacity constraints in existing faculties limit how many new students can be trained each year, the availability of experienced foreign professors could be decisive.

The Indonesian Medical Council has previously noted that the country graduates roughly 12,000 new doctors annually, a pace many experts say is insufficient to meet projected population and disease burdens in the 2030s. Adding foreign academic staff could help new and existing faculties scale up enrollment without compromising training standards—if accreditation, licensing and language issues are resolved early.

From Symbolism to Implementation

For now, the agreement is heavy on symbolism and light on specifics. Neither government has disclosed how many Pakistani health workers will be dispatched, which regions or institutions they will serve in, or how long their contracts will last. Indonesian officials say follow‑up technical talks will address licensing, competency recognition and language training, as foreign doctors are typically restricted under Indonesia’s health workforce regulations.

Under Indonesia’s 2023 Health Law, foreign health workers can be deployed under specific cooperation schemes, especially in education, research, technology transfer and services in underserved areas, subject to strict oversight by professional councils and the Ministry of Health. This provides a legal framework for the Pakistan deal, but also sets boundaries on how far it can go without additional regulatory changes.

Bilateral Relations Beyond Health

The health personnel pledge is embedded in a wider effort to recalibrate Indonesia–Pakistan relations. Bilateral trade currently stands at about US$4.5 billion, with more than 90 percent consisting of palm oil shipments from Indonesia to Pakistan—a pattern both sides say they want to diversify. New memoranda of understanding signed during the visit cover cooperation not only in health and higher education but also in agriculture, information technology, science and vocational training.

Both countries, among the world’s most populous Muslim‑majority states, also underscored shared positions on global issues such as the Palestinian question and a commitment to “moderate” interpretations of Islam. Diplomats in Jakarta argue that people‑to‑people exchanges in fields like medicine, nursing and academic teaching could give this rhetoric a more tangible social dimension.

Opportunities and Open Questions

Health policy analysts say the Pakistan initiative could help Indonesia in at least three ways: shoring up immediate gaps in underserved regions, accelerating the growth of medical and dental faculties, and improving clinical teaching standards through exposure to foreign lecturers and specialists.

But they also caution that simply importing professionals will not solve systemic issues such as low remuneration in remote postings, uneven hospital infrastructure and bureaucratic barriers that delay deployment. Experiences from other countries that have relied on foreign doctors—such as the UK’s recruitment of overseas physicians to staff its National Health Service—suggest that long‑term success depends on clear integration pathways and sustained investment in domestic training.

A Strategic "Souvenir" with Long-Term Stakes

For Prabowo, the Pakistan visit appears to have delivered more than diplomatic ceremony. In domestic political terms, the promise of additional doctors and medical professors offers a concrete, easy‑to‑communicate outcome at a time when Indonesians are acutely aware of pressures on the health system after the COVID‑19 pandemic. For Pakistan, it opens a new channel of influence in Southeast Asia built not on weapons or infrastructure but on human capital.

Whether this “souvenir” of doctors and professors becomes a turning point for Indonesia’s health workforce, or remains a symbolic gesture, will depend on the difficult work that now follows: drafting implementing regulations, negotiating contracts, aligning curricula and overcoming language and cultural barriers in clinics and classrooms. What is clear is that, for two countries searching for new ways to make their partnership matter to ordinary citizens, cooperation in health may prove one of the most visible tests.