MassDevice.com publisher Brian Johnson is in Shenzhen, China, for the China International Medical Equipment Fair and is blogging the event.
I arrived in Shenzhen on Saturday morning, April 17, essentially running on fumes after some 20 hours of air travel (and twice as much time spent waiting for connecting flights).
The first rule for Americans doing business in China, I guess, is getting used to the jet lag.
Shenzhen, like many parts of this country of 1.3 billion people, is booming. Everywhere you look, skyscrapers are being erected, bulldozers and excavators are working overtime and people are walking around in designer-label clothes. This is definitely not your father’s China.
The scene at the enormous pavilion for the China International Medical Equipment Fair seems even more telling. Thousands of plants and floral arrangements are being laid out, as workers hustle to finish preparations for a trade show that will bring in about 50,000 visitors to nine exhibition halls, featuring some of the largest names in the medical device industry.
The organizers say it’s the world’s second-largest medical technology trade show, next to the annual Medica show in Germany. They’re expecting a big turnout, in part fueled by a perceived end to the global economic crisis and also because, like Shenzhen’s construction industry, the hospital industry in China is exploding. All this is despite the fact that a cloud of volcanic ash has essentially crippled the chances of seeing a large contingent from Western Europe.
A little perspective on our host city: Shenzhen, about 20 miles north of Hong Kong, is one of China’s youngest cities. It was a small town until 1980, when Deng Xiaoping chose it to be a center for economic development. It is one of the richest cities in the country, a place where many young people come to try and make it in business. Not even 30 years ago, this city of 10 million was little more than a fishing village. Today, Shenzhen can easily rival the Las Vegas of the early 2000’s in terms of construction, and perhaps even surpass it in terms of neon lights.
Like most of the urban centers in China, Shenzhen is experiencing a massive real estate boom. Last week, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s gross domestic product grew by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2010, to about $1.2 trillion, paced mainly by a 35 percent bounce in real estate investments. In fact, the real estate boom is so intense (and so troubling to the government) that strict limits have been placed on speculators and even first-time home buyers who, in some cases, face a mandatory 30 percent down payment in order to buy a home.
And China’s efforts to significantly bolster its healthcare system is a major opportunity for device makers the world over.
Andrew Gately, a commercial officer for the American Consulate General Dept. of Commerce in Guangzhou, said the motivation to improve the healthcare system is aimed in part at easing some of the overcrowding in China’s hospitals.
Many rural residents distrust local physicians and flock to the cities in order to receive medical care, Gately said, clogging up the country’s best hospitals for days on end as they await basic services that could easily be provided by improved clinics in rural areas.
This opportunity, combined with China’s growing economic power, makes for an interesting role reversal for Western companies, which up until now have primarily used China as a manufacturing base.
Disclosure: Brian’s trip to Shenzhen is sponsored by Reed Exhibitions.
