A consultation was launched by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney on 18 April on whether to create a new programme to attract immigrant entrepreneurs.

Mr Kenney said: “Our government’s top priority remains jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. Canada cannot afford to lose out in the competition for foreign entrepreneurs among immigrant-receiving countries.

“We need to proactively target a new type of immigrant entrepreneur who has the potential to build innovative companies that can compete on a global scale and create jobs for Canadians.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) intends to consult on the development of a “start-up” visa programme for innovative entrepreneurs in the coming months, in which linking immigrant entrepreneurs with private sector organisations that have experience and expertise in working with start-ups will play a key role.

The right insurance protection can give entrepreneurs moving to Canada – or any other country – real peace of mind so that they concentrate on building their businesses, without worrying about what might happen if they fall ill, for example. For more information, please contact us.

The survey, which was reported by employee relocation specialists HCR Group on 7 May, was based on results from 2,353 responses from business professionals in 85 countries working in fields including finance, technology, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and HR.

A total of 42 per cent had already relocated, 39 per cent wished to relocate in the future and 13 per cent would consider it. Only six per cent did not see relocation as a viable option.

Of those that had relocated, 90 per cent believed the move had accelerated their personal development, 86 per cent that it improved career prospects and 83 per cent had seen their salaries rise significantly as a result.

The three most popular places for survey respondents to live and work remained the United States in first place and the United Kingdom and Australia in second. Other countries included in the top 15 locations were Singapore, Canada, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

In relocating abroad, life and income protection insurance can provides real peace of mind that if an accident, illness or injury does occur, financial obligations will be met.

For more information on HealthCare International’s life and income protection insurance policies, both for individuals or companies who want or need to provide these employment benefits to their staff, please contact us.

The Gulf News website reported that in an interview with local Arabic daily Al Arab in April, Mohammed Al Ubaidily, director of legal affairs at the ministry, said: “The labour market strategy is based on retaining skilled expatriates in order to benefit from their expertise

“Visas are renewed by the interior ministry, but we stress the need to keep skilled foreigners in Qatar.”

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been considering imposing a five-year residency cap on millions of foreigners, many of them unskilled workers from Asia, seeking employment opportunities in the region.

For more information on HealthCare International’s insurance products for globally mobile workers and international companies, please contact us.

The latest World Health Statistics 2012 report, published on 16 May by the World Health Organisation (WHO), said that one in three adults worldwide suffered from raised blood pressure, a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease. One in ten adults has diabetes.

WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan said: “This report is further evidence of the dramatic increase in the conditions that trigger heart disease and other chronic illnesses.”

Blood pressure is a particular issue in Africa, where more than 40 per cent – and up to 50 per cent – of adults in many countries are estimated to have the condition, many of them remaining undiagnosed.

And diabetes is a serious problem in some Pacific Island countries, where up to one third of the population has the condition. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to cardiovascular disease, blindness and kidney failure.

Obesity was also highlighted as an issue in every region worldwide. WHO said half a billion people – 12 per cent of the world’s population – were now considered obese, with the WHO region of the Americas having the highest rate, at 26 per cent of adults.

Non-communicable diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, currently cause almost two thirds of all deaths worldwide.

For more information on medical insurance from HealthCare International, please contact us.

As part of that process, we send an email to clients who make a claim through us, asking them to complete a short survey via a link to our online questionnaire.

Sarah Adadi, our customer care manager, says: “Honest feedback from people who have recently gone through our claims process is really important in helping us to improve our customer care.

“The responses to our survey really do help us to maintain and improve our services, so we really value all the feedback we receive.

“The survey is only five questions long so we do hope as many clients as possible will take a couple of minutes to complete it.”

If you would like to contact our customer care team, please email customercare@healthcareinternational.com or call +44 (0)20 7590 8800.

But new research from Eurobarometer, the European Commission’s public opinion survey arm, has shown that almost three-quarters of people in the European Union (EU) don’t know that there’s a single number to call when an ambulance, the police or fire service is needed.

The single European emergency number 112 was adopted in 1991, to enable people to call the emergency services using the same number, anywhere in the EU, and is now operational in all EU member states, alongside national emergency numbers like 999 in the UK.

But the Eurobarometer report issued on 2 February revealed that only 26 per cent of those quizzed correctly identified 112 as the number to call anywhere in the EU in the event of an emergency.

There were only four countries where at least 50 per cent of respondents were able to immediately identify 112 as the number to call for emergency services anywhere in the EU – Poland, Luxembourg, Finland and the Netherlands – while the proportion of respondents who said they would call 112 in the their own country ranged from 96 per cent in Sweden to just one per cent in the UK.

Where people had travelled within the EU within the previous 12 months, 34 per cent recognised 112 as an EU-wide number compared with just 21 per cent of those who had not travelled in the EU.

A campaign was launched on 11 February to raise awareness of the 112 number, supported by transport companies with messages on e-tickets, in on-board magazines, on their company websites and through their staff.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said “You can save a life by knowing and dialing 112. But 112 only helps if people know about it. So we are working with travel companies to catch attention while people are en route to their destination.”

More information on 112 is available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/112/index_en.htm

For more information on HealthCare International’s travel insurance, including a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year helpline, please contact us.

More than 1,000 British citizens living in the ten most popular expatriate destinations were asked to rate their adopted country on a range of factors, including quality of life and cost of living.

The survey, carried out by Lloyds TSB International and published in the Telegraph on 19 January, found that 68 per cent of those questioned were happier in their new home than in Britain, rising to 75.9 per cent in Spain.

Other countries that performed well were Canada and Germany, where 72.2 per cent and 71.4 per cent respectively said they were happier.

The research also revealed that most expats in Spain (71.3 per cent) thought they were financially better off than in Britain and 80 per cent thought the cost of living was lower there, the highest percentage of any other country in the survey.

While it’s good news that moving abroad can lead to increased happiness levels, with financial pressures around the globe putting increasing pressure on state-run services, like health care, it makes sense to put in place appropriate health insurance.

For more information on HealthCare International’s expatriate health insurance please contact us.

The annual event highlighted that, without urgent action, the number of people living with diabetes is expected to rise from 366 million in 2011 to 552 million by 2030 – the equivalent of three new cases every ten seconds.

It is also estimated as up to 183 million people are unaware that they have diabetes. The age group most seriously affected by diabetes covers those aged between 40 and 59.

As a long-term condition that can have serious implications for the quality of the life of people affected by it, expatriates need the peace of mind of having in place health insurance that includes financial help towards the costs involved in chronic conditions, like diabetes.

Many diabetics experienced difficulty in obtaining insurance covering diabetes or conditions related to it but HealthCare International offers access to policies that can cover for chronic conditions, like diabetes, as well as potential future conditions relating to diabetes like heart conditions, strokes or eye issues.

Other policy options include income protection insurance that will pay up to 75 per cent of annual income once the policyholder has been off work for more than three months, with payments continuing.

Payments continue until the policyholder recovers, goes back to work or until the selected retirement age is reached, if the condition is so serious that it prevents a return to work. For more information, please contact us.

Take the case of Asher Cairns, for example, who suffered injuries including a fractured skull, dissected artery and fractured vertebrae in his neck after hitting a rock while skiing in the Swiss Alps in February 2010.

Asher, who is originally from Northumberland but has lived near Zermatt, where he runs a chalet lettings business, for nearly a decade, underwent surgery – including having a metal plate inserted in his skull – and spent four months in intensive care but went on to make a full recovery.

By December 2010 he was skiing again and in August 2011 married his long-term girlfriend, Georgie, near her family’s Dorset home.

Income protection insurance provides real peace of mind that if an accident or injury does occur, financial obligations will be met.

For more information on HealthCare International’s income protection insurance policies, both for individuals or companies who want or need to provide this to their staff, please contact us.

It said that every year, families were left facing huge medical bills following an accident on the slopes, often because people had not taken out travel insurance or had not read the small print of their policy, despite the potential cost if something went wrong.

The Foreign Office warned that a fractured leg in the United States could result in a medical bill of up to £40,000 while a knee injury in Austria could cost £8,000.

Spokeswoman Lynda St Cooke said: “We strongly advise anyone hitting the slopes this winter to take out comprehensive travel insurance and make sure you have an up to date EHIC card.

“Don’t forget to check the small print – most insurance policies will not cover you if you’re under the influence of alcohol or venture off-piste. If you’re unlucky enough to have an accident and you’re not covered, you could find yourself thousands of pounds out of pocket.”

For information on HealthCare International’s travel insurance, which offers an option to include winter sports, and provides cover for the cost of medical bills and repatriation, please contact us.