Medtronic to help local firms go abroad
Chris Lee, left, president of Medtronic's Asia Pacific Region, and Hurh Joon, president of Medtronic Korea attend a press conference at the InterContinental Seoul COEX hotel, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Medtronic
By Baek Byung-yeul
Medtronic, a global medical device manufacturing company, said Tuesday it will help local Korean firms in the medical industry do more business overseas.
The world's leading medical device company said it will hold a two-day conference in Seoul, Tuesday and Wednesday, together with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
“We are planning to concentrate more on Korean medical firms as the country has high quality medical technology and highly developed engineering technology,” Hurh Joon, president of Medtronic Korea, said during a press conference at the InterContinental Seoul COEX hotel. Hurh added the company also chose to cooperate with Korean firms as it sees the government paying special attention to the medical industry.
The Medtronic Asia Innovation Conference is comprised of two parts. On the first day, Medtronic presented the latest trends in the global medical device market and know-how on inaugurating businesses overseas. The second day will focus on building business networks between Medtronic officials from the Asia region and local firms. Korean companies showed their strong interest with the conference as 72 were registered to attend.
Founded in 1949, Medtronic posted nearly 30 billion in sales in its fiscal year 2018. It operates businesses in more than 150 countries and sells devices to treat 30 chronic diseases including cardiovascular devices and surgical products used for minimally-invasive surgical procedures.
Chris Lee, president of the company's Asia Pacific Region, said Korean firms in the medical device industry need to expand their businesses overseas because “there is no slump in the medical business.”
“Korea has the world's ninth largest medical device market but the technological superiority of Korean firms is not well known,” Lee said. “We highly recognized the potential of the Korean market so we held the conference here in Korea.”
For local companies seeking to go abroad, Lee urged them to start their business first in China and other Asian markets.
“The medical device market in the Asia Pacific region is estimated at $88 billion and is expected to grow to $133 billion by 2020 to become the world's second largest market following the U.S.,” Lee said. “I think it would be better for Korean firms to begin their businesses in China and other Asian countries because China has an enormous medical device market.”
Lee said Medtronic will cooperate with Korean firms in various ways ranging from co-developing medical devices to setting up joint ventures.