This week Roncucci&Partners has been engaged in a mission to the United Arab Emirates on behalf of an important Bolognese company leader in the production of advanced wound care dressings.
Our client company, which has been active on the market for over 100 years, produces its product line entirely in Italy, guaranteeing high quality standards and constant control of all phases of the production process. Thanks to a punctual investment in terms of innovation, production efficiency and logistics, the company has been able to consolidate over time its position in foreign markets, which today accounts for 90% of the turnover, achieved mainly through private labels. And today, strengthened by the results achieved, it has turned to our company to take another significant step in the field of internationalization: the export sales development of its own branded products. After an in-depth study phase, carried out with the help of our GTO™, efforts have been directed towards the UAE, where the medical sector has been growing steadily and promisingly for some years now. The GTO™ (Global Trend Overview) was fundamental to understand which markets were the most suitable to approach. Â As a matter of fact, the tool allows to identify, on a global level, the most attractive countries for the business analyzed in terms of risk and accessibility, growth trends and market demand. The information that emerged made it possible to target the UAE. Subsequently, our team of experts conducted an in-depth market analysis and then organised the current mission.
Our mission: a busy schedule of meetings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
This week’s mission includes a series of meetings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, aimed both at deepening technical and regulatory aspects which characterize the sector in the Middle East area, and at creating concrete business opportunities. Our project manager, Caterina Pasini, will accompany the Export Manager of the client company in a series of particularly interesting meetings with local authorities and distributors, doctors and purchasing managers in the sector. After a careful selection of key people to meet, including a doctor specialising in wound care who plays a role of reference for the Consulate General of Italy in Dubai and who has given a thorough understanding of the use of these products by a professional operating in the Emirates market. Another important meeting was the one with the purchasing manager of a private clinic in Dubai, which made it possible to deepen the criteria for the wound dressing selection and to understand what the most used products are and where they come from, as well as providing useful technical feedback on our client company’s products. The meeting with the Dubai Health Authority, the regulatory authority that oversees the entire medical sector of the Emirates capital, was particularly useful to understand how tenders for supplies to public and government hospitals in Dubai are organized and managed. Finally, the meetings with the 9 selected distributors were fundamental to find concrete business opportunities and make direct contact for future business developments. Some of them also gave us access to their warehouses, a very interesting experience to verify the quality standards and storage methods of the material.
The importance of the medical sector in the Arab Emirates
In recent years the United Arab Emirates have been expanding in all possible business sectors, with the undisguised desire to become one of the most important economic hubs in the world. Among the sectors that record the most interesting performances, there is certainly the health sector, with particular attention to the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. Healthcare spending in the United Arab Emirates reached a value of 13.7 billion dollars (50.3 billion EDA) in 2018. By the end of 2025, the medical sector is expected to be worth 27.5 billion dollars. With the growing population, the booming tourism industry and increased demand for health insurance, health infrastructure development and digital and technological transformation will certainly remain key market drivers in the coming years. Not surprisingly, the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sector is one of the six target sectors established in the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030.
Dubai is experiencing rapid development in the healthcare sector and aims to be the reference point for the sector: the aim of the Emirates city is to transform itself into a global destination for both domestic and foreign patients and at the same time to be able to attract medical tourists from all over the world thanks to top quality facilities and treatments. In addition to hosting the Arab Health Medical Exhibition – the most important trade fair in the medical sector in the entire Middle East area – the Emirates city has given birth to Dubai Healthcare City, inaugurated in 2002 by Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and today considered to be the centre of excellence for health care and clinical assistance in the entire Middle East, where various important pharmaceutical companies from all over the world have set up, including Abbott, Eli Lilly, J&J, Novartis etc., as well as the Arab Health Medical Exhibition. No less important is the Dubai Science Park, the hub dedicated to start-ups, entrepreneurs, companies operating in the pharmaceutical and medical sector.
Dubai Science Park is the business community that serves the entire field of science in the Emirates.
And if Dubai is the driving force, the rest of the Emirates does not stand by and watch. According to the report published by the Business Council of the United States and the United Arab Emirates in 2018, the healthcare sector in the United Arab Emirates is expected to expand substantially, meeting the challenges inside National Vision 2021, the program launched by the government of the Emirates that “sets out the key issues for the social and economic development of the United Arab Emirates” and calls for “the transition to a diversified, knowledge-based economy. As far as the healthcare sector is concerned, National Vision 2021 focuses on reducing the prevalence of diabetes, obesity and smoking, focusing on reducing the number of deaths caused by serious diseases such as cancer. In addition to this, the programme aims to promote the pharmaceutical industry and spending in the medical sector. This is a market full of opportunities, which companies in the sector are looking forward to.
