Office of Microelectronics, Medical Equipment and Instrumentation (OMMI)
OMMI will plan, organize and lead a medical device and supplies trade mission to India in January 17-24, 1998. The purpose of the mission is to enhance U.S.-India commercial relations and increase export opportunities for U.S. manufacturers of medical products to the second most populated country in the world. The U.S. delegation will travel to three of India's most densely populated cities: New Delhi, Chennai (Madras) and Mumbai (Bombay). The delegation will be led by Victoria Kader, senior medical device analyst in OMMI, and the participants will include executives from 15-20 U.S. medical device firms.
Trade liberalization and economic reforms have come of age in India. Since 1991, India has gradually reduced its high import tariffs, delicensed and liberalized imports, encouraged foreign direct investment and strongly promoted exports. The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 7 percent in 1995-1996 driven mostly by increases in manufacturing, construction and service industries. India's economic reforms have led to rising income levels and a growing middle class estimated at 50 to 80 million, who are demanding better health care and access to quality medical products and services. Furthermore, demand for medical devices in India grew 16% in 1996 and the medical device market estimated to be $680 million, making India one of the top ten medical device markets in the world. There are almost 9,500 private hospitals in India and the number is expected to steadily increase into the next century. One example is the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, the fourth largest private hospital in the world.
Private healthcare facilities in India are largely run by Indian doctors who were educated abroad and prefer foreign medical products. Economic prosperity in India has prompted many doctors trained in the U.S. to return to their homeland to practice medicine and run private hospitals. A targeted medical device trade mission to India would facilitate stronger U.S.-Indian partnerships and U.S. manufacturers, leaders in the medical field, will have an opportunity to supply India with the most technology advanced medical products. The Indian population will also benefit by having better access to health care services.
Given the vast commercial opportunities and increasing purchasing power of the Indian middle class, OMMI staged the first American Products Literature Center (APLC) at the Health and Medicare 1996 trade show held in New Delhi, September 1996. OMMI represented 53 U.S.
companies at the Department's APLC and received over 2000 visitors resulting in more than 6000 leads for the participants. As a follow-up, OMMI sent an event survey form to these participants and many of them are already in contact with the leads generated from the show and several have started doing business.
India desperately needs a variety of medical devices and services for its growing (estimate to be 940 million population) and the mission is designed to fulfill some of these needs. The mission is timely in that India is at a threshold of a new-free market era. As it becomes more integrated with the global economy, competition will become tougher for U.S. companies to establish market presence, increase market share or expand sales in India, particularly in the medical technology area. Currently, India does not have a strong indigenous medical device industry and U.S. is a major supplier of these goods, accounting for 38 percent of the import market, worth $60 million last year. By meeting with major end users, distributors and suppliers of medical devices to the health care industry in India, U.S. participants will be able to have a first hand knowledge of the marketplace and make suitable contacts for future business deals.
The advantages of stopping in New Delhi, Chennai and Bombay are that mission participants will be able to meet with both government and private sector decision makers for purchasing medical devices. New Delhi, the center of the Indian government, provides an opportunity for U.S. firms to discuss health care policy, expenditures, and regulatory issues affecting medical device imports and foreign direct investment programs with health care officials. These meetings will help U.S. participants to better understand such issues as reimbursement policy, insurance programs, government procurement and regulatory and standards issues most frequently asked by U.S. medical device exporters. Mission stops in Chennai and Mumbai, two major ports and trading centers in India, are expected to open opportunities for U.S. mission participants to meet with private sector leaders in the Indian medical device community for future exports and joint venture activities.
The three-stop mission is scheduled as follows:
January 17: Arrive New Delhi
January 18: Downtime
January 19 and 20: Meetings in New Delhi
January 20, evening: Travel from New Delhi to Chennai
January 21 and 22: Meetings in Chennai
January 22, evening: Travel from Chennai to Mumbai
January 23 and 24: Meetings in Mumbai
January 24, late evening: Depart Mumbai for the U.S.
The mission is open to all U.S. manufacturers of medical and dental equipment or supplies, medical component parts or laboratory products, who are interested in expanding into the Indian market. The composition of mission participants will be a mixture of small- and medium-sized companies and large multi-national corporations. Recruitment of mission participants will be conducted in an open and public means, including direct mailing, public notices and targeted marketing. OMMI will use a comprehensive mailing list consisting of 12,000 companies covering the full spectrum of U.S. health industry manufacturers currently available within the Department of Commerce. Notice of the trade mission will be published in the Federal Register, Commercial News, Business America and leading trade publications. This effort will reach a wide range of medical device executives and OMMI staff will promote the mission at trade shows, events and other fora.
Each participant will have a legitimate business reason for participating in this mission and will be requested to certify that his or her company adheres to the Department of Commerce recruitment guidelines. Furthermore, a company's products and services must be either produced in the U.S. or, if not, marketed under the name of a U.S. firm and have at least 51 percent U.S. content of the value of the finished good/service.
The deadline for submitting application materials is November 21, 1997.
Firms selected by the Department of Commerce staff for this trade mission must be in full compliance with the selection criteria as stated in the Secretary's new trade promotion policy. Firms of equal rating will be selected on a on the basis of timeliness of the company's completed application and payment of the mission participation fee.
Any partisan political activities (including political contributions ) of an applicant are entirely irrelevant to the selection process.
Duaine A. Priestley
International Trade Specialist
Office of Microelectronics, Medical Equipment and Instrumentation
U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 1015
1401 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230
Tel: 202 482-2410
Fax: 202 482-2702