UK exports could be better, but industry in good shape

Lack of interest from the medical device industry led to the cancellation of trade missions to two of Asia's tiger economies - Taiwan and Hong Kong - last year. Further, a visit to the UK by top procurement officials from Norway was cancelled because of apathy, despite the Norwegians plans to spend $1 million buying consumable directly from manufacturers. Given that the medical device markets in Taiwan and Hong Kong grew by 18% and 12% respectively during 1996 (see page 19 this issue), and that the UK industry continues to be over reliant on domestic markets, someone somewhere is making poor choices.