보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Building overseas support centers for medical equipment to help promote the brisk exporting of medical equipment

- Small- and mid-sized medical equipment makers expected to find new markets -

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Rim Chemin) said that it plans to open *overseas support centers for medical equipment to improve the reliability of local medical equipment makers, encourage exports, and help companies find new markets.

* These are localized bases for after-sales services specialized for the medical equipment industry, and two centers are planned to open in two foreign countries in 2013.

The major functions of these centers include: supporting after-sales services of Korean exported medical equipment, providing education programs for such equipment to the foreign customers, and offering *incubating support for Korean small- and mid-sized companies that are planning to advance into overseas markets.

* The center will stand proxy for Korean exporters before they establish a definite distribution network within foreign markets, and help export and sell medical equipment requiring local importer registration.

The project will begin in mid March by collecting subjective operators, choosing destinations, establishing the centers, and inviting Korean companies to join, and the supporting services are expected to start during the second half of this year.

For the first year (2013) of the project, the government plans to support 80% of the total project cost (up to 0.5 billion won per center) for building and operating the centers, and plans to continue providing support for three years.

This project is a pilot program to match the government with companies to encourage foreign investment on medical equipment from countries such as Southeast Asia, and these centers are expected to be utilized by small- and mid-sized companies which have already advanced into overseas markets but are having difficulty providing after-sales services.