Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest country by population with not less than 248 million people as of 2013. It is estimated that the country’s per-capita healthcare spending will reach almost $150 by 2015, up from $36 in 2005. The Indonesian medical device market is worth almost $1 billion and growing at 15% annually. Almost 95% of the market’s total value comes from imports, with 90% of all 2013 device registrations belonging to foreign manufacturers.

The Indonesian government has also mandated increased public spending on health, establishing a universal healthcare system and upgrading hundreds of public hospitals. These plans are expected to grow Indonesia’s healthcare industry from $25 billion to $50 billion by 2020. The national healthcare scheme is scheduled to be set up by the end of 2014 and will cover all Indonesians by 2019—though, similar to Thailand, the coverage will be very limited. Less than two-thirds of the country’s total population of 250 million currently has health insurance.

Unlike in other ASEAN and Asian markets, an independent third-party in Indonesia is not allowed to hold a license on behalf of a foreign device manufacturer. Hence, nearly all medical device licenses are held and in the name of the Indonesian distributor, making it difficult and expensive for foreign device companies to leave bad Indonesian distributors. Another recent reform was a new online medical device registration system.

Source: Medical Device Business & decisionAsia