Annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative held in Berlin

Attendees of the annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative; Claudia Englbrecht, BIO Deutschland (ninth from right), © Illing & Vossbeck Fotografie
Attendees of the annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative; Claudia Englbrecht, BIO Deutschland (ninth from right), © Illing & Vossbeck Fotografie

On 1 March, the annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative took place at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in Berlin. The initiative includes five working groups focused on different areas of the healthcare industry: medical technology, medical biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, telemedicine and health-related services. BIO Deutschland has been participating in the Medical Biotechnology Working Group for several years. Along with industry associations, representatives from related export programmes and other BMWi departments took part in the discussions. Since mid-2016, BMWi has bundled together its various export initiatives under the umbrella initiative “Mittelstand Global” (Global SMEs). Harald Kuhne, head of the BMWi’s Central Administration Directorate, chaired the meeting. Besides providing a review of the past year and presenting an assessment of the initiative, the export initiative’s staff gave an overview of the projects that the working groups have planned for the coming year. All activities aim to help small and medium-sized enterprises of the represented industries develop new markets abroad.

In the past few months, the Medical Biotechnology Working Group has been preparing a market study on China, which was published in February (see following news item). The Working Groups still plans to create a registry of German diagnostics companies and organise ambassador breakfasts, webinars on sought-after markets and exhibitions at trade fairs.

Also presented at the meeting were the activities of BMWi’s market development programme and the continuing education programme for managers with an emphasis on healthcare as well as export-related projects of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).

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