MEDICAL MIRACLES : Participation by Indian Medical Device Companies

Thirteen companies from six developing countries presented themselves at the Medica 2006 trade fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, last November in the CBI stand. The companies are enrolled in the CBI's export development programme for medical devices and laboratory equipment. The event surpassed all expectations, says CBI consultant Leendert Santema.

Participants in CBI pavilion at Medica 2006

The 13 participants in the CBI pavilion represented India, Indonesia, South Africa, Pakistan, Colombia and Tunisia. Another 12 companies from Colombia, India South Africa, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan exhibited by means of brochures and samples in the CBI's renewed 'hospitality area' - a section of the pavilion designed for informal meetings and discussion with visitors. "The hospitality area was a tremendous success. From the beginning to the end of the show, it was in constant use", says Santema. The participants - all ISO9000/2000 or CE-certified - registered 760 business contracts, booking over Euro 87,000 worth of orders and another 15,5 million or so of expected orders.

Professional presentation

A total of 4,600 exhibitors from 73 countries attended the fair, which included the Compamed event with 232 exhibitors. The Medica conferences were attended by 1,400 participants. The CBI group presented product lines for all medical market segments, from hospitals to the home care market, and from specialised clinics to OTC products, ambulances, dentists, the pharmaceutical industry and more. The CBI's exhibitors certainly fit in with the general level of professionalism, says Santema. "Our participants all operated professionally and gave proof of their appreciation of the importance of trade fair participation. Their stands were well decorated and the essential issues were presented well on laptop computers, video and cd presentations, or direct functionality testing. It's no secret that all our participants are really experts in their respective fields. And in the few situations in which specific expertise was missing, the CBI consultants were available to give visitors detailed medical information. The whole fair was an overwhelming experience. The general impression is that more and more opportunities are being offered to suppliers from developing countries."

Visitors Feedback

Feedback from visitors- whose numbers were up from 132.000 in 2004 and 134.500 in 2005 to 137.500 in 2006, with a growing presence of traders among them- confirmed that the CBI pavilion was a hit. . The visitors appreciated the wide range of excellence, high-quality products and applications and one of the visitors commented the seriousness of starting business with them. A group of distributors from Greece said, via their spokesman, "The CBI set-up is very valuable to us, as it saves lot of search time. We have found a wide range of high-quality medical device". One group of purchase managers from Dutch hospitals invited Santema for a meeting in the possibility of purchasing directly from manufacturers in developing countries. Santema reported that their interest looks promising.

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