The Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is organizing an India Pavilion at CPhI South East Asia (SEA), in Indonesia from May 10-12. The event is being held for the first time in Jakarta in the island nation.

Over the past few years Indonesia and the surrounding island nations have become an important exporting destination for Indian pharma exporters, particularly for APIs, drug intermediates, natural products, formulations, medical surgicals, devices, etc.

Indonesia's trade with India has doubled during the past five years. It can be mainly attributed to the growing living standards of the people and due to improvement in the spending on healthcare sector by the Indonesian government. The per capita GDP of Indonesia has also doubled in the past 5 years and mid-income population is also growing rapidly, which is assumed as the other major reason for the growth of Indian pharma trade with the Island nation. It is expected that the mid-income population will be doubled to 52 million by 2015.

Combined with the 10 per cent average annual GDP growth in recent years, Indonesia represents great opportunities for the Indian companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

The CPhI South East Asia (CPhI SEA) can be utilized as a great opportunity by the Indian pharma giants and SMEs to gain a direct access to the south east Asian markets and to prove their ability and capacity as the best-in-world manufactures of quality pharma products.

The countries which are expected to participate in the event from the South Eastern region include Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc.

India's drugs and pharmaceutical exports to Indonesia for the year 2010-11 have been recorded at Rs.264.87 crore. “We can take this as an opportunity to showcase Indian pharma industry’s capability in quality, quantity and range of products to the south eastern region nations and can improve our export performance not only to Indonesia but also to the neighbouring countries,” said Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmaexcil.

In fact the council in consent with the Department of commerce, government of India, and with the association of IBEF (India brand equity foundation) is campaigning to promote Pharma Brand India in important world markets, especially Japan and now in Indonesia.

The main objective of this campaign is to showcase the manufacturing & quality strengths of Indian pharma industry in the international markets, to cement India's position as global pharmacy for generic medicines at affordable prices, and to increase business on a sustainable basis and take it to the next orbit.