Indonesia: Healthcare
Published 4 December 2014
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Summary
First big showcase event for UK healthcare industry and first visit by Healthcare UK to Indonesia generates extensive positive press coverage, strong engagement with senior industry figures and early potential business opportunities.
Detail
Howard Lyons, CEO of Healthcare UK, visited Indonesia to speak at and promote UK capability alongside the first ever UK stand at Indonesia’s largest healthcare exhibition and medical convention on 15-18 October. While in-country he engaged with senior leadership of Indonesia’s hospital association, met the management of Indonesia’s fast-growing private hospitals and a prominent Indonesian investor seeking to develop healthcare business.
The visit was part of Indonesia’s GREAT campaign, which this year is focussing on two areas: tourism and healthcare. Since April, UKTI Indonesia has used GREAT funding to do in-depth research into the fast-growing healthcare industry to understand the opportunities for the UK, to engage with Indonesia’s biggest hospital groups and medical distributors to identify their needs, to run a webinar for UK companies and taken a delegation of Indonesian healthcare buyers to one of the biggest South East Asian medical fairs. The showcase at Indonesia’s Hospital Expo was designed to promote the breadth of UK healthcare capability, generate introductions between visiting UK companies and Indonesian buyers and invite senior figures to visit the UK in early 2015.
Why healthcare?
Indonesia’s healthcare spending is projected to more than double from $24.6bn in 2012 to $60.6bn in 2018, with the number of hospitals growing from 2,282 in 2013 to 3,500 in 2020. Private sector spending makes up half of Indonesian healthcare spending; in recent years many of the large diversified conglomerates which dominate Indonesia’s business landscape have established hospitals with this growth in mind. The Government this year introduced universal healthcare and aims to have all of Indonesia’s 250 million citizens covered by 2019. The incoming Government proposed ‘healthy Indonesia’ as a cornerstone of its agenda so we anticipate increased spending in the public sector in 2015 and beyond. At present Indonesia’s healthcare capacity lags well behind regional and international averages and healthcare systems do not have enough capacity to meet the needs of the people who will be enfranchised by the expansion of universal healthcare.
Mr Lyons gave a powerful presentation to an audience of over 200 medical practitioners and healthcare managers about the UK’s universal healthcare system at the International Hospital Association convention at the exhibition. The questions from the floor showed much interest in the NHS and desire to engage with the UK. The questions continued later that evening when we hosted a well-attended round-table dinner with the senior board of the Indonesian Hospital Association (IHA). They quizzed Mr Lyons on a range of issues that they have faced this year with the introduction of the new universal healthcare system, including primary care centre quality, referral systems and continuous professional development.
The CEO also met representatives from Indonesia’s largest private sector hospital groups who provided an insight into their commercial development plans and interest in UK capability. The biggest interests were in electronic medical records systems, training partnerships and hospital management. .
The Healthcare UK activity made a wider splash, too. Interviews with English-language national paper the Jakarta Post and Bloomberg TV, plus associated social media activity, promoted our messages about UK capability to over 2.2 million readers, viewers and twitter users. The stand itself saw 60 enquiries and the British companies which exhibited – all medical equipment companies from within the region – reported promising leads.
Comment
Our first in-market showcasing of UK capability in the Healthcare sector has left prominent players eager to visit the UK next year. The inward visit will enable us to raise awareness of the significant Indonesian opportunity with British companies. We will use this platform to engage with the new Government to identify potential HVOs to add to the existing supply chain opportunities we have already identified.
Disclaimer
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