58th CMEF,China

‘The Event Offers Excellent Branding Opportunity to Our Company’

Started in 1977, this year, the trade fair was attended by 1,20,000 delegates

Diabetes may be new to China, but currently it is a big challenge to be dealt with. Currently, we are relying only on imported products for diabetes, and hence our focus now is on how we can be self-sufficient in this arena, said Dr James Ho, Chairman, In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Summit. He was speaking on Training Needs of China Healthcare Industry at the 2007 China Summit Forum for IVD arranged during China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) held in Chengdu, China on 24-27 October, 2007.

This was the first time when an IVD summit was held during CMEF. "We had set an upper limit of 100 seats as this was the first time at CMEF. However, we were pleasantly surprised at the attendance of 120 people. This has encouraged us, and we will certainly be back at the next CMEF," said Dr Ho, who is also the Director of Centre for Clinical Laboratory Development, Beijing, China, and has been arranging summits on IVD since a long time.

The conference shed light on various topics related to international and national healthcare scenario. The conference, divided into four parts, dealt with industry policies with regards to US FDA, the development required in training of healthcare industry of China, how investors are looking at investing in the in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) sector, and important business trends in the IVD market.

CMEF, awarded with an A-Class Exhibitions title by the Ministry of Commerce and Federation of Consumer Products Trade Centre of All China Cities in July 2007, is produced biannually (in autumn and spring) by Reed Sinopharm Exhibitions Co. (RSE) Ltd, a prominent medical and pharmaceutical event organiser in China. CMEF is essentially an exhibition of medical equipment, right from sharps to ultrasounds to ambulances. Also, the International Component Manufacturing & Design (ICMD) show is co-located with CMEF.

Spreading the Wings

The autumn CMEF was spread in almost 88,000 square meters of exhibiting space. Usually, both seasons receive great response from the medical fraternity. "April is that time of the year when hospital administrators receive their annual budget for purchasing medical equipment for their hospitals. This is when we get an upper edge from other medical equipment fairs and it is the right time to target our customers. Also, during October, we get good attendance again as it is the last fair for medical equipment sale, and hospitals need to finish their budget for that year, as it is not likely to be carried forward next year. This way, we benefit from both seasons," said Daniel Chang, Director-International Sales & Marketing Department, RSE.

The burgeoning Chinese medical device market is estimated to be worth $3.3 billion in total sales volume and is forecasted to maintain a strong annual growth momentum at 11.7 per cent. This is one of the main reasons of the success of CMEF, which was started in 1977 and was a local event back then. "It was only in 1992 that we started opening up to the international market and since 2005 we are having country pavilions at CMEF," said Paul Lee, Vice President, RSE.

More than 57,000 professionals from trade and the medical community congregated to engage in business meetings, buy, source, network and acquire the most current industry-leading knowledge over four days. Over 42,000 visitors and buyers, including 1,338 from overseas, packed the show's nine bustling halls. The autumn installment of the event saw an increase in international attendees and total number of exhibitors over the past two editions of the show. More than 2,000 exhibiting companies from 17 countries and regions and 45 Chinese provinces congregated in the Chengdu New International Convention & Exposition Center. The total number of visits over the four-day event exceeded 1,20,000.

Stronger Than Before

This year's event saw stronger support from overseas associations including long-time participator, the Korea Medical Devices Industrial Coop. Association (KMDICA), the Japan Industries Association of Radiological Systems (JIRA), and member companies from the German Industrial Association for Optical, Medical and Mechatronical Technologies Inc. (SPECTARIS). Long Wei, Deputy Chief Representative of Voelker AG, a SPECTARIS member company, said, "Being present at CMEF gave us ample opportunities to connect with visiting end-users and traders, and promote Voelker's better healthcare concept to industry professionals."

CMEF's supporting partner, JIRA, also had a stronger turnout at the show than last year. "From an international association's point of view, we have seen remarkable improvement at this year's event," said Hiroshi Ishikawa, Chairman of International Division, JIRA.

Hee-Byoung Park, Executive Director of KMDICA, said, "We regard this event as the most important venue outside Korea for marketing the association and our member companies. In fact, this is the only international trade event that we exhibit twice yearly since 2002, and we've noticed that the show is becoming more international each time we return."

The above statement proves true as there was a huge turnout of Indian manufacturers and representatives from corporate hospitals as well. Said Major Iftikhar Husain (Retd.), General Manager-Materials, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, "This event offers a diverse range of products under one roof. The organiser brings in the best exhibitors and because there are clearly demarcated sectors, we can easily choose the companies that are most suited to our needs. I found many quality exhibitors who could modify their products to our requirements."

Not just India, CMEF saw support from companies of European countries as well. "We believe the event offers an excellent branding opportunity to our company as we are seeking to raise our visibility in China," said Winston Wu, PR Manager-China, Medtronic (USA). "Overall, I think the show's quality is remarkable with excellent amenities, such as the VIP lounges for exhibiting companies."

Eng Elena Sguazzi, a technical consultant for Italian firm Coremec, said, "We generated 50 per cent of our new ideas for business development from visiting this show, and met with 8 to 10 potential OEM collaborators."

One of the event's highlights was multiple new product launches from industry bellwether corporations such as Mindray, Toshiba, Neusoft, Haier, Sony, and Belmont among many others. Visitors previewed a comprehensive array of innovative medical products such as Bio-Asia's new immunoassay reagents, URIT's auto chemistry analyser, Haier's pulse vacuum steriliser, and Mindray's Beneview hi-end monitors and Colour Dopplers. In particular, bio-medical electronics firm, Mindray, has enjoyed a decade-long success at CMEF/ICMD.

"The event offers us an opportunity to showcase our new products and technologies to an impressive attendee audience," said Jason Wang, Senior Regional Manager, Mindray. "Besides driving our brand awareness, we are also able to build relationships with our distributors and customers."

Jayata Sharma