The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is to lead a healthcare business delegation to three South East Asian countries namely Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, in May. The delegation would explore the export potential of Indian healthcare sector, especially in the areas of cardiology, oncology and ophthalmology.

The delegation will consist of medical professionals and will be jointly supported by the Ministry of Health and Family welfare and Ministry of Commerce.

According to FIEO, the programme is part of its continuing endeavour to promote India's services abroad and to create a brand image of India's services, as it did in the field of information technology.

FIEO is in touch with Indian embassies and apex chambers of the three countries to confirm the exact date of departure of the delegation. The delegation is likely to stay for two days each in these countries during which business negotiations are expected to be finalized.

"Keeping in view the large demand and supply gap in health care services in the South East Asian countries, it offers good opportunity to Indian companies to cater to these markets particularly when we can offer medical facilities at competitive rates" feels G Balachandran, director general FIEO.

The delegates will be selected on first-come-first basis and will be finalized in consultation with the Ministry of Commerce. The delegates can also avail the subsidy facilities made available to them by the Ministry of Commerce, through its Market Development Assistance (MDA) Scheme, under which, the eligible ones are entitled to get reimbursement up to admissible limit.

FIEO is an apex Trade Promotion Organization which represents directly or indirectly, over 1,00,000 manufacturers, mercantile and service exporters across the country. As the apex body of all Indian export promotion organisations, FIEO has also been nominated nodal agency for export promotion of services by Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. The Federation had recently organized Buyer-Seller Meets in CIS countries, which were highly successful and generated business enquiries to the tune of USD 32 million in the area of healthcare products and services.