Warm up for the CIIE! Matchmaking event held for food and medical industries
A pre-CIIE matchmaking event for exhibition areas pertaining to food and agriculture products as well as medical devices and health-care products was held in Shanghai on Wednesday.
The event was the second large-scale pre-fair matchmaking session held for the 6th China International Import Expo, mainly aimed at exhibitors and buyers in the food and medical industries.
Nearly 50 companies from the food and agricultural product exhibition area, including Charoen Pokphand Group, Lesaffre, Fonterra, Dole, TheLand and A2 Milk, participated. They covered industries such as fruits and vegetables, meat products, dairy products, beverages and wines, as well as snacks.
More than 30 companies from the medical equipment and health-care product exhibition area, meanwhile, attended their part of the matchmaking session, including Pfizer, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Danaher, Össur, Comvita, Amway and Blackmores, covering the pharmaceutical, medical equipment, rehabilitation and elderly care, and health product industries.
The session also attracted nearly 200 buyers, including a number of industry leaders and related institutions in China, to explore some new exhibits and build connections with exhibitors in advance.
Boston Scientific, for example, revealed that it will bring multiple exhibits related to ailments such as coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, and peripheral artery disease, as it found that the aging of China's population has accelerated in recent years, and these "pan-vascular diseases" and structural heart disease have shown an increasing trend.
"Benefiting from the strong 'spillover effects' of the CIIE, we last year established the Boston Scientific Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd in Shanghai, which successfully upgraded our identity from an exhibitor to an investor," said Laura Zang, senior director of Interventional Cardiology at Boston Scientific China.
"We hope that through the establishment of the new company, we can accelerate the access of high-quality overseas products to the Chinese market, and carry out investment and acquisition, technology transfer, and more extensive business cooperation in China," she added, while expressing her expectation to find more local partners at the November 5-10 CIIE.
Also, Medtronic, which is participating in the CIIE for the fifth consecutive year, plans to showcase advanced technologies and therapies in multiple disciplines such as heart and vascular health, orthopedics and neurosurgery, and neuroscience.
The company noted that one of its new products that treats atrial fibrillation will make its global debut at this year's expo. The product has already entered the special approval channel for innovative medical equipment of China's National Medical Products Administration.
Gu Yushao, senior vice president of Medtronic and president of Medtronic China, said that the CIIE provides many possibilities for multinational corporations to showcase innovative medical technologies, promote industry exchanges and cooperation, and accelerate the accessibility of high-quality medical care.
After the debut of nearly 10 innovative Medtronic products at the CIIE, they were successfully introduced into the Chinese medical market, Gu pointed out.
Liu Fuxue, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, said that so far, the 6th CIIE has released more than 700 intention procurement demands from 14 trading groups, has held investment promotion roadshows in 11 cities across China, and has signed important procurement cooperation memorandums with more than 30 industry-leading companies nationwide.
"We will further actively optimize various services to comprehensively enhance the participation experience of exhibitors and buyers," Liu promised.