Turkey eyes replacing China in medical exports ranking

Turkey aims to maintain the annual medical product exports amount of $5 billion last year in the following years amid fierce competition with China, medical suppliers' federation head Erkin Delikanlı has said.

"Last year, 128 countries requested medical supply donations, export permits, or purchases from Turkey. Mistrust of China, which is the leader in the medical equipment and product sector, caused a shift of interest toward Turkey in 2020," said Delikanlı, head of the Federation of All Medical Equipment Producer and Supplier Associations (TÜMDEF) on April 19.

"We made use of that opportunity pretty well," he added.

Turkey's medical supplies exports skyrocketed from $650 million in 2019 to $5 billion last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, as the Chinese economy recovered at a fast pace since then, Turkey's medical exports are expected to drop to $2 billion this year, Delikanlı said.

As part of an economic reform action plan revealed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 12, Turkey has established the Health Industries Presidency.

"This department will be in charge of the competitive development and production of many strategic materials from pharmaceuticals to vaccines and from medical devices to biotechnological products using domestic means," Erdoğan said.

The new presidency will bring huge advantages to improve competitiveness against China, Delikanlı said.

"Our initial target is to make the level of $5 billion exports permanent," he added.

With other sectoral stakeholders, TÜMDEF will convey its suggestions to the presidency, Delikanlı also said.

Mechanical ventilator used by over 30 countries

A mechanical...