Health market looks robust

Seven Japanese medical equipment manufacturers comprising Konica Minotal, Toshiba, Fujifilm, Olympus, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and Nihon Kohden have presented their most advanced  equipment in Hanoi, with an eye on expanding their sales in Vietnam.

“Vietnam is the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia, and the demand for healthcare here is growing rapidly too,” said Nobuyuki Hatakeyama, deputy manager of International Sales Division, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, adding that the strong growth would lead to greater demand for advanced medical equipment.

He noted Vietnam had great potential for Toshiba to expand its medical equipment sales. “We are providing products and services to Vietnam from Toshiba Medical Systems Asia in Singapore, and two of our cutting-edge Aquilion One systems have already been installed and are in use. Using the latest technologies, we will continue to contribute to Vietnam’s medical sector by developing high-quality products that meet local needs,” he said.

In the latest financial report, Toshiba’s medical sector revenues in Vietnam reached $60 million.

With a population of nearly 90 million and increasing average incomes per capita, Vietnam’s private and public healthcare services are lagging behind growing demand. Espicom Business Intelligence, a UK-based company providing business intelligence on medical devices, pharmaceuticals and healthcare across global markets, estimates 92 per cent of Vietnam’s medical device market was supplied by imports this year, and the sector was growing rapidly. Japan, USA, Singapore and China were the leading suppliers, accounting for 50 per cent of the imports in 2012, the publication noted.

“There is a big gap between central and provincial hospitals in Vietnam now. Central hospitals are far better-equipped than provincial hospitals. When the Vietnamese government upgrades the public hospital system and when private investors build more new hospitals, there will be major opportunities to provide equipment,” said Hironobu Kawano, general manager of Asia-Pacific Sales Marketing Department, Olympus.

Olympus established a representative office in Vietnam in 1997 to begin local services based on sales and post-sales customer care. In 2005 Olympus Medical Systems Vietnam Company, a subsidiary company of Olympus group, was established with Hanoi as headquarters and a branch office in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Our business in Vietnam is very good,” said Kawano. “Since 2009, average revenue growth has reached 30 per cent.”

Fujifilm is also expecting to expand business in Vietnam. Takaaki Ueda, general manager of Endoscopy Systems Division of Fujifilm Corporation, said Fujifilm planned to bring advanced products such as ultrasound systems and double balloon enteroscopy which are routinely performed in Japan, however are not common in Vietnam because there are higher needs for specific educational programme.

“Our next challenge in Asia regarding endoscopy sales is to increase the number of physicians capable of using endoscopes in order to increase the demand for endoscopy systems and achieve a higher sales growth ratio,” said Ueda, adding that the firm would open a training centre in collaboration with Japan’s Nagoya University and Hue University for the training of around 20-30 physicians per year in Vietnam.