Ask anyone in the med-tech field, or any other manufacturing field for that matter, where  the largest majority of emerging markets for their businesses reside and chances are they will say somewhere in Asia, with China being the first country to likely  cross their lips.

With more than 600 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.3 trillion, the ten nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are already experiencing dramatic economic growth. This is especially true of the medical device market, which in 2012 was worth more than $4 billion. Roughly 65% of the $4 billion comes from Asia’s new tigers: Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

And then there is China, with a  $9 billion medical device market i. It is now the sixth largest medical device market in the world, and analysts estimate it will grow between 15%-20% annually over the next five years. The country is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population. With 1.3 billion people and a burgeoning middle class, China has witnessed an unprecedented rise in healthcare consumption. More citizens are spending more money on healthcare, including sophisticated medical devices.

Numbers like the ones above are impossible to ignore for any company that fancies itself to be an international player. With that in mind, Medical Device Daily has joined forces with Pacific Bridge Medical, a well respected consulting firm that helps companies doing business in the medical market, to bring our readers more timely and informative news about this critical area of the world.

The inaugural story provided a comprehensive overview of the Chinese market. Pacific Bridge Medical president and founder Ames Gross outlined the opportunities in China, noting the need for larger international medical companies to have a direct manufacturing presence in China. He also said that Chinese made products have improved greatly in quality and are starting to give Western made devices some stiff competition that will only increase in the next decade. Gross said that to compete with these Chinese companies, international companies will need  to offer basic, low-cost versions of their A-line products. To do this, some of them have set up their own China-based manufacturing facilities. Others have acquired Chinese companies with broad product portfolios and decent market shares.

Look for a story in tomorrow's edition of Medical Device Daily on the  aforementioned new tigers of Asia.