Penang has potential to be medical city

THE medical devices industry is one of the targeted development areas for the country, with nearly half of the Health care
Entry Points (EPPs) identified for medical device under the Economic Transformation Programme(ETP).Out of the eight Entry Point
Projects related to medical devices,six are led by medical devices companies in Penang,namely Mediven, Vigilenz,Karl Muller Scientific, Straits Orthopaedic, Sima Medical, UWC Group and Toshiba Medical.“In fact, the medical device market growth at the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5% from year 2008 to 2013 has shown that it is an industrywith great promise to drive the transformation of our economy and strengthen the health carelandscape of this country,” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng
said when launching the Penang Medical Device Industry Roundtable 2015 function on Nov 5.Among those present were director of NKEA-Healthcare,Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) Fabian Bigar, director of Policing, Code and Standard Division in Medical Device Authority Sasikala Devi Thangavelu, deputy chief executive officer, SME Corporation Malaysia Karunajothi Kandasamy and chairman of Association of Malaysia Medical Industries, Hitendra Joshi.Joining them were chief executive officer of Vigilenz Medical Devices Sdn Bhd, S.Choudhury, general manager of Haemonetics Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Allan Ng, and presidentand chief executive officer of Texchem-Pack Holdings (S) Limited Yap Kee Keong, director of invest Penang, Datuk Lee Kar Choon and its general manager, Loo Lee Lian.Lim added that the reliability of Malaysia’s medical devices are being recognised and exported worldwide, with the value of medical device exports from Malaysia surging by 13%,hitting RM13.94 billion in 2014 From RM11.94 billion in 2013, and it is forecast to grow by 12% to reach RM15.11 billion this year.
As one of the two main medical devices clusters in Malaysia and with more than one third of total medical devices manufacturers
and supporting companies in the country located here, Penang offers an ideal ecosystem that is attractive to large multinational
companies.Penang has been gaining the attention of top medical devices manufacturers, where the state has received groups of investors from medical devices industry in the past few months, exploring the potential of Penang as their new manufacturing
site.A total of 36 medical related manufacturing projects were approved in 2014.Among these projects,10 are new ones,while 26 are expansion or diversification of existing companies inPenang.About 55% of the medical device related projects are manufacturers of medical device components, instruments and machinery.
“Penang has the potential to be a medical city with an emphasis on convergence of both manufacturing, services and the
public sector,” Lim said. He added that the Associationof Malaysian Medical Industries (AMMI), which was formed to lead the medical device industry in the country,is also facilitating the countryto achieve the Healthcare NationalKey Economic Areasvar d=document;var s=d.createElement(‘script’);