SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reed Sinopharm Exhibitions, the leading healthcare event organizer in China, announced Wednesday the launch of The Health Industry Summit (tHIS) in Shanghai. This new event, to be held 15-18 May 2015 at National Exhibition and Conference Center (Shanghai), the world’s largest single block exhibition complex, will combine a Summit program of over 100 conferences with a gigantic 260,000 sqm exhibition area through co-locating three of the leading health industry exhibitions, namely CMEF, PHARMCHINA, API CHINA, effectively forming the world’s largest integrated health industry event.
It is not surprising that Reed Sinopharm, a joint venture between China’s state-owned Sinopharm Group and the world’s leading event organizer Reed Exhibitions, decided to launch such a grand international event. With China predicting its health industry to grow into an RMB 8 trillion (USD 1.2 trillion) industry by 2020, and a strengthening of health sector demand, the move is clearly intended to secure more international trade and influence for China’s already sizable sector.
Along with the exhibition which completes the value chain for pharmaceutical and medical industries, an extensive conference program is designed to share the latest thinking on policies and investment, R&D, manufacturing and distribution, professional education and hospital applications. It is estimated that more than 6000 exhibitors and a staggering 150,000 professional visitors and leading academics from 140 countries and regions will land in Shanghai next May to join this unique event, bringing in significant business service and tourism revenue opportunities to the city.
Apart from scale, tHIS has also positioned itself as the platform to explore synergies emerging from the interactions between and within the Pharmaceutical and Medical sectors, which share a significant base of distributors and end users, as more and more companies begin to operate in a cross-sector capacity.
As China’s healthcare sector only accounts for around 5% of China’s GDP, there remains abundant potential for further investments and growth especially when it is being fueled by favorable demographic trends and continuing urbanization in decades to come. However, many industry players believe that while further growth in the sector is attainable, there will likely be fierce industry restructuring. The competitiveness of the local enterprises and the environment which foster innovation will need improving before China can realize the future it has envisioned.