With local exhibitors making up a small minority at Mediphar, this year's annual medical supply and equipment trade fair in Taipei, questions are being raised about the event's benefits.
The fair is currently underway at the Taipei World Trade Center and ends Nov. 14.
"There are twenty wheelchair manufacturers in Taiwan, but only three of them are here," said an employee of a show organizer.
"Local manufacturers don't want to come because there are no foreign buyers, and foreign buyers don't come for the same reason," he said.
Local manufacturers have in the past excelled at supplying low-tech products such as wheelchairs, hospital beds and prosthetic limbs.
Over the past few years, the show has been schizophrenic in character, unable to decide whether it should focus on imports or exports.
This split personality is evident in the perplexing demographics of this year's show. Of the 190 exhibitors, just 20 are counted as foreign and 67 are considered to be local.
But what about the remaining 103?
As it turns out, most of them are local distributors for foreign brands. Their purpose in coming to Mediphar is to promote their brands to Taiwan's medical community.
"We get to talk to a lot of doctors and hospital purchasing officers," said Chen Jin-yi, of Stellar, a distributor for several types of Japanese and Korean-made X-ray machines. "Taiwan is a liberalized country, so there is a lot of competition."
Also, because Mediphar coincides with the annual convention of the Formosan Medical Convention, there are always lots of doctors on hand.
Last year's event attracted more than 3,000 local physicians. When these doctors come, they are mostly interested in foreign goods.
Last year, the industry's total output came to around NT$12 billion, about 65 percent of which was for export. In the recession year, export totals held firm at NT$7.8 billion, roughly the same as during 1997.
Meanwhile, local market demand for medical supplies and equipment came to NT$20 billion in 1998, about 80 percent of which was satisfied by imports.
These medical imports consist of a wide array of products, from pharmaceuticals that are better accomplished by economies of scale, to hospital equipment from the US, Germany, Japan and Korea.
X-ray machines, respirators, magnetic image resonance machines, and ultrasound scanners are all examples of premium quality products which Taiwan must import.
However, Taiwan's ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) is trying to move up the technological ladder by moving into ultrasound. The government-supported development center has come up with a PC-based ultrasound system, which promises to be a scaled-downed portable unit that can be used in ambulances and other types of emergency medical treatment.
"This would be Taiwan's first self-developed ultrasound device," said Ihyuan Kuo, manager of ITRI's ultrasound technology depart-ment. "It's just as good as any other system at a comparable level of technology. First we want to get it a little smaller, then we will work on how to produce it. So far, we have worked with one small company for production, but they couldn't make it," he said.
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