Hong Kong Molders Target Medical Devices

Agroup of Hong Kong companies, including some large plastic firms, want to see the region become a hot spot for manufacturing medical devices, and one of their leaders is suggesting stepped up efforts are needed to do that. Hong Kong manufacturers, who built their businesses partly by leveraging the low cost of mainland China, have been stung by rising costs in those Chinese factories and the collapse of their traditional export markets in Europe and America. But some of them are now hoping to combine what they see as their strengths in manufacturing consumer electronics and other products for Western markets and join it with Hong Kong's medical and university centers, to expand into the potentially more iucrative global medical device arena. Hong Kong is traditionally strong in precision manufacturing of plastics, metals and electronics, and needs to find ways to link that with its solid base of university biomedical engineering programs and clinical research to start commercializing new medical technology, according to John Chai, chaiman of the Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industries Association. "What needs to be happening is there needs to be a healthcare innovation program, to coordinate this innovation activity," said Chai, who is also an executive with plastic molder and measurement equipment maker Fook Tin Technologies Ltd. " We need someone, probably from the government, not leading itself but organizing all these elements to be put together." Exports of medical equipment and healthcare products from Hong Kong have grown 50 percent since 2004, to US＄4.2 billion last year. For too long, Chai said, local firms focused on making consumer electronics, toys and other products for large multinational firms, but they need step into higher-end markets and focus more on product innovation. He suggested the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission could play a stronger role in fostering health care innovation. While Hong Kong-based firms have a long history of exporting to North America, Europe and Japan, they could still face hurdles transitioning to medical devices because of skepticism about whether China is a safe place to manufacture world-standard health care products, according to David Wong, business development president with Hong Kong-based injection molder Mediconcepts Ltd. Mediconcepts, which has worked with doctors to manufacture complete minimally-invasive surgical tools such as tissue removal bags and laparoscopic devices at its factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, sometimes finds skepticism when it pitches China as a manufacturing location to American firms worried about risks. Wong said. Still, Hong Kong plastics firms with business in the medical field say it has generally weathered the economic downturn better than other sectors. "A lot of electronics and home appliance makers in Hong Kong are ready to enter into medical devices" Vincent Medical Mfg. Co. Ltd., which makesrespiratory care products using injection, blow molding and extrusion processes at its factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, said its export sales are down somewhat but sales to mainland China are "growing exponentially," according to Calvin Koh, marketing manager. Earlier this year, China announced plans to spend 850 billion yuan (US＄125 billion) to significantly expand health care access, prompting firms like Vincent to focus more closely on the domestic China market. Koh said Vincent Medical is also trying do more of its own product development, as its costs to manufacture in China have risen substantially in recent years from the rising Chinese yuan, the country's labor law revisions in 2008 and higher raw material costs. "It is really hard to make profits " making components or products for other companies, Koh said. Hong Kong firms have the potential to use their Chinese manufacturing base to lAIr Jordan Outdoor Basketball Shoes