THERE’S never been a better time for South West Med Tech & Bio Pharma companies to conquer the Chinese market says a Somerset company helping UK firms partner with China (December 2020).
Bridgwater-based Aspen Waite China UK (AWCUK), which has Beijing and Shanghai offices, says from 2020 to 2050, China’s national health expenditure will increase, and its medical/health market will expand significantly.
Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at AWCUK, Dr Oksana Artyomenko says: “It is estimated that by 2030, demand within China’s medical and health market will reach more than £1.7 trillion, by 2040 it will be nearly £3.3 trillion and around £4.2 trillion in 2050. Due to outmoded manufacturing processes, China relies on imports for high-end medical devices and is looking for greater input from overseas companies to help meet its population’s need for medical assistance.
“China’s current five-year plan to help improve its economy includes narrowing the wealth gap between urban and rural communities and growing its middle-class domestic market. With continuous economic development and improvements in living standards, people’s awareness of healthcare will also be gradually enhanced, so the demand for medical equipment, care, services and products will rise too.
“If you also add to this that China now has an aging society and that there is policy support for the manufacturing and importing of equipment, the country’s medical market has huge potential to grow even further.
“In 2018, the new ‘innovation medical instrument special approval procedure’ was put in place to help ease imports in the Med Tech & Bio Pharma sector. This has made it much easier to bring innovative new products to market in China and has significantly encouraged the development of the medical equipment industry with collaborations with firms from all over the world.”
Working with the South West Business Council (SWBC), AWCUK has formed a trading partnership in China to support the development of UK innovation in the Med Tech & Bio Pharma sector.
Dr Aili Zhu PhD, Senior Director for Chinese Operations at AWCUK, explains: “Through our strategic trade partnership with SWBC and The South West China Alliance, we are supporting the export of UK sustainable innovation. We provide those within the sector with an opportunity to expand, using our existing specialist R&D and incubation provision. We can then also support them further with greater opportunities to capitalise on the Chinese market especially as China’s economic development strategy partly relies on partnerships with UK innovators to meet demand.”
AWCUK is part of the Aspen Waite Group, which was founded in 1993 as a firm of Chartered Accountants offering services to corporates and individuals. The company has rapidly grown to be a UK top 100 accounting firm.
The Group is more recently known for being among the top UK firms for innovation and R&D.
AWCUK has very close links with Chinese Economic Development governments, and with offices in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in most regions of the UK, including its head offices in Bridgwater, Somerset.
The company has a history of developing new sectors of cooperation, strategic partnerships for public and private sector, and overcoming difficulties created by differences in regulations, as well as social and business cultural differences.
Anyone interested in finding out more about AWCUK, should visit https://chinauk.co/.
