MEDICAL FAIR INDIA continues on course for growth
Quality and quantity of visitors makes for high spirits among exhibitors
MEDICAL FAIR INDIA, India’s No. 1 Trade Fair for Hospitals, Health Centres and Clinics, impressively continues its rate of growth and keeps pace with the positive trend in the industry. This conclusion can be drawn from the successful course of MEDICAL FAIR INDIA 2018 in Mumbai. 16 – 18 March saw 12,350 trade visitors come to the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre to learn from 551 exhibitors about innovations for health care and current trends
“This means that the number of visitors has gone up yet again by 15% compared to the event at the same location two years before. In interviews exhibitors said they were very satisfied with the quality of visitors and their demands,” explains Thomas Schlitt, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf India, and adds: “Rising incomes, population growth and increasing health consciousness all result in steady market growth and a call for improved health care.
This is also reflected by the development of MEDICAL FAIR INDIA. It is not only a platform for supply and demand. It is also about joint ventures for product development, manufacturing and sales.” Since there are currently only about 60 national medical device technology producers, the majority of products and technologies for medical needs are imported. This opens up excellent business opportunities for multi-national vendors. At the same time, there is a need for them to closely cooperate with Indian partners so as to rise to the challenges specific to the Indian market in an optimal way. U
Underlining this on behalf of many exhibitors, Simon Bensassi, International Sales Director of Surgival from Spain, said: “This was the first time we have participated at MEDICAL FAIR INDIA. We have reached many high-quality visitors. What was especially important to us was gaining insights into the Indian market. Who are the decision makers? What about the government and what about pricing? How much is invested and where? These were questions we had interesting conversations about.” Brian Krawczyk, Director of Global Business Development at VIA Global Health (USA), also believes his company has achieved the aims it set itself for participation at the trade fair: “To us this was an extremely useful event for finding good distribution partners in India.” John Mason, Sales Director at Seers Medical (Great Britain), shares his view: “There was a very good mixture of visitors from both private and public health care. Visitors come from all over the country. We will also be taking part in MEDICAL FAIR INDIA 2019 in New Delhi.” Also taking positive stock was the Brazilian manufacturers’ association ABIMO.
Karina Yamamoto (Trade Promotion Coordinator) emphasised: “The Indian market is developing at warp speed and it is very important for us to get a foot in the door here and learn to understand the market. In addition to Indian visitors we also succeeded in making contacts in Bangladesh, China and even Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.” Again, the integral programme components of the trade fair made MEDICAL FAIR INDIA 2018 even more attractive for visitors. Worth mentioning here is CLIN LAB INDIA, a conference with exhibition organised by Scherago and Messe Düsseldorf India; in terms of content it focuses on molecular diagnostics, point-of-care applications and immune-biological laboratory medicine. The increasing digitalisation of medicine was centre stage at the ‘International Conference on Digital Health and Medical Equipment’ by Voice of Healthcare and the Lounge Area ‘FTR4H’ (Future for Health) played a prominent role within the trade fair as a platform for the creative startup community. Here the discussions related to presentations and brief lectures revolved around sounding out the market relevance and maturity of innovations and placing young entrepreneurs with potential business partners. 3 MEDICAL FAIR INDIA is held alternately at venues in Mumbai and New Delhi every year. Focal ranges include: medical products and medical device technology, laboratory technology and diagnostics, equipment and furnishings plus furniture for hospitals and health centres and the global trend areas of Health IT and Mobile Health solutions, to name but a few themes. The target group encompasses decision-makers from the medical field (such as physicians and medical professionals), hospital managers as well as representatives from the medical trade and industry. Due to its spectrum of topics covered the event is equally attractive for architects and building planners, for enterprise consultants or for the scientific and research community.