With more and more importance and concerns being connected to health and medicine on a daily basis, every country around the world is heading off investing in the health and medical markets, resulting in a recent blooming in growth of the medical electronics industry. In response to this uptrend growth, the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and ITRI have joined forces holding The 2008 Medical Electronics in Taiwan Forum ( from ITRI ) on October 2nd and 3rd. With the attendance by over 300 participants, including leading international providing sectors such as GE Health-care and the Roche Pharmaceutical Testing Department, as well as over 100 domestic providing sectors including Quanta, TaiDoc, Apex, Deantronics and Yonglin etc, this forum will help all participating companies jointly with access to study developmental trends into the strategic directions within the global medical electronics industry, and create exchanges and business opportunities between Taiwan and the world.
Achieving the goal of one-stop shopping center
Industrial Development Bureau Director General Chao Yih Chen once said, “Within the last five years, the Taiwan medical equipment industry has been the fastest growing sector among domestic bio-tech industries. The government has been consistently promoting Taiwan to stand as a global ‘one-stop shopping center’ for medical equipment product. Due to the fact that the medical electronics industry accounts for the largest portion in this field, it has become the focus of the burgeoning strategic industry, causing the government declaring its resolve in enacting policies further supporting in this area. In the future, measures such as preferential taxes and R&D subsidies will also be rolled out to continue promoting the developing of the related industries.
In terms of the critical areas of regulations and testing, suppliers will be actively assisted strengthening fundamentals to come in line with overseas industries. Meanwhile assistance will also be bestowed to those companies seeking to develop overseas markets and establish international branches.”
ITRI President Dr. Johnsee Lee added, ”In recent years, the Industrial Technology Research Institute has put forth great efforts in developing medical electronics and medical equipment resources. Taiwan should utilize its advantages in the information and telecommunication industry sector to create a niche for developing high-level medical equipment. It should also take advantage of Taiwan’s IT industry superiority to integrate resources from different areas to slice into the manufacturing of high value-added medical electronics equipment product, as well as integrating service demands, while simultaneously seeking innovative technology to continue promoting the upgrading of the industry towards higher quality.” Director of ITRI’s Medical Electronics and Device Center, Dr. Yio Wha Shao noted, “Taiwanese providing sectors in the past usually adopted a ‘go it alone’ approach, but when entering the global market, they can actually go engaging in strategic partnerships with large overseas companies to increase manufacturing quality so as to overcome the challenge of ‘small amounts, large variety’ phenomenon seen in this field. Therefore this method would establish a reputation for Taiwan brands within the international market.”
Joining in global growth
According to ITRI, turnover in the Taiwan medical equipment industry totaled $74.9 billion, accounting for less than 1% of the global market share, and evidencing a great deal of space for development remained. However, the growth rate of the domestic medical equipment output value is 16.5%, much higher than the global growth rate of 6.1%. Furthermore, the medical electronics industry in Taiwan accounts for up to 60% of the total domestic medical equipment industry, as opposed to the 40% seen globally. Hence the potential for development in this market is rather high in comparison. Taiwanese companies crossing into the medical electronics industry include not only medical equipment suppliers, but also plenty of suppliers from other industries eager to join in.
The Medical Electronics Promotion Service Program implemented by ITRI has been actively guiding suppliers in developing key technologies advantage, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs also provides a great deal of supporting aides. Methods used by large international companies when establishing their strategies during Globalization have been shared, so that the local industry can enjoy the best allocation of resources, as well as ideas and direction for new developments in medical equipment area. Local companies currently making strides into the medical electronics markets, such as Quanta, Johnson fitness and Yonglin, can utilize this forum as an information exchange course on the current situation and challenges faced within Taiwan. With efforts from various industries, the development and growth of the medical electronics industry in Taiwan will be easily foreseeable within sight.
