Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

SUNDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2019, KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Devices continued its stellar growth in driving export sales for the nation. Revenues of RM370 million was secured within 4 days by 19 Malaysian companies at Arab Health 2019 held in Dubai, UAE recently. This is higher than the RM367 million achieved in 2018 at the same expo.

The Malaysia External Trade Corporation (MATRADE) organised the participation of Malaysian companies at the largest healthcare industry event in the Middle East and North Asia (MENA) region. All the 19 companies presented their respective booths at Malaysia Pavilion. This is the fifteenth consecutive year that MATRADE has facilitated a Malaysian delegation at this renowned healthcare industry trade event.

The Malaysian companies which participated at Arab Health 2018 were from a broad scope of the industry, including medical furniture, infusion and transfusion sets, medical gloves, test kits, medical and healthcare furnishings, disinfectants and airway tunings. This significant export sales achievement by the MATRADE delegation sets the pace for Malaysia’s medical devices industry which posted a record breaking RM23 billion of export sales in 2018 with anticipation of increased contribution for 2019 with MATRADE projecting a double digit growth.

According to Mr. Abu Bakar Yusof, Director of MATRADE’s Lifestyle and Life Sciences Section, “The feedback from the participating companies at Arab Health over the past two years has been overwhelmingly positive. For this very reason we decided to increase the number of participants this year. Consequently, the results have been very encouraging. Exports of Medical Devices continued it double digit growth of 16 per cent from RM 19.7 billion in 2017 to RM 22.96 billion in 2018. We are hopeful that exports to continue registering double digit growth for 2019.”

Malaysian medical devices industry players see their involvement in relevant global industry trade events in partnership with MATRADE to be instrumental in their market expansion. One
of the participants, Ms. Cecilia Ngwan, General Manager for Dispo-Med Sdn Bhd said, “This is our fifth time participating at the annual Arab Health with MATRADE. We have been receiving good response from the industry buyers in the MENA market, and the event is also generating interesting enquiries from importers during the event. Based on this, we are expecting our exports to the region to increase by 20 per cent.” According to another
participant, Mr. Kyle Chin from Hana Medic Sdn Bhd, “Since 2014, we have been participating in Arab Health under MATRADE’s banner. We are glad that the continued support has given us an effective platform to penetrate new markets, and we are currently in talks with a buyer from Oman for the supply of a halal hand sanitizer.”

Mr Abu Bakar adds that “MATRADE recognises that the Medical Devices industry is slated to become a major contributor to exports within the years to come. We are currently working
closely with relevant industry players and associations to identify means by which MATRADE can assist in order to further grow Malaysia’s local Medical Devices industry globally. There
has been good momentum generated from our participation in activities such as Arab Health and we are expecting for it to have a ricochet effect on the industry.”

This year, the Arab Health event featured more than 4,200 exhibitors from over 150 countries. However, the MENA region itself is a strategically important market as healthcare spending in this region is expected to reach RM 780 billion by 2020. MATRADE maintains a focus on engagement of our Malaysian industry players at such trade events as part of the strategy to elevate Malaysia’s Medical Device sector and enable our companies to grow further in years to come. This is also aligned with the 11th Malaysia Plan, in which the Government has identified the medical devices industry as one of the high growth sectors.

MATRADE will continue to undertake specific promotional programs in Medical Device and Healthcare through International Sourcing Programme (INSP) for Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia Conference (APHM) (August 2019). MATRADE is also planning to participate in MEDICA Dusseldorf (November 2019), one of the world’s leading events for Medical Device.