By Emad Elmasry, Emergo Group
Yesterday, Arab Health concluded. This was the 41st edition of Arab Health and has grown again. The 2016 exhibition showcased more than 4,000 companies exhibited their latest innovations to more than 130,000 healthcare professionals attending from 163 countries. Those numbers equal the Medica show in 2015, even though Medica still has more exhibitors (4,977). Moreso than Medica, Arab Health is very much focused. Companies that visit or exhibit are really looking to seize the opportunities for this specific region, whereas at Medica companies seem to deal with contacts from all over the whole world.
According to the Emergo team that staffed the booth this year, two countries were of particular interest: Iran and China.
Due to the lifting of the sanctions, more and more medical device manufacturers seem interested to learn more about the potential that the Iranian market has to offer for them. Read our article on Iran. Emergo received quite lot of inquiries on the nature of the registration process and the distribution in Iran. At the same time we heard from many more Iranian distributors than last year. They are all looking for devices to bring to the Iranian market.
The other interesting observation was on the number of Chinese manufacturers that were exhibiting this year. In 2015, our team was impressed by the size of the Chinese contingent, but it has grown again this year. Right now the Chinese manufacturers occupy almost three complete halls at Arab Health.
We are already anxious to learn what 2017 will bring.
Emad Elmasry is the Middle East Managing Director with Emergo Group.
The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of MassDevice.com or its employees.