The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is planning to send a business delegation to Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia from November 24 to December 4, 2013 to explore and improve the Indian pharma and herbal exports to the South East Asian countries.

During the past few years, India has been focusing to build its export hold in the regional markets of South East Asian (SEA) countries. As the population is growing and demand for good quality affordable medicines is increasing in the countries of SEA region, India is a natural choice for importing generic medicines for these nations.

If one looks at India's pharmaceutical exports to Thailand, during the past three consecutive years from 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, there is an overall increase from $122.09 million in 2009-10 to $149.63 million in 2011-12. The year 2010-11 had witnessed an export decline of $14.54 million in pharma from India.

Similarly Cambodia and Myanmar too have gradually increased pharmaceutical imports from India. India’s export to Myanmar was $57.33 million in 2009-10 and this has gradually increased to $62.51 million and $80.42 million in the consecutive years of 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively.

To Cambodia, though the beginning was a bit slow, the exports have jumped from 19.29, 19.55 in 2009-10, 2010-11 to 23.66 million in the year 2011-12.

Giving insights into latest export details, Raghuveer Kini, executive director, Pharmexcil said, “For the financial year 2012-13 India has exported $142 million worth of pharmaceuticals to Thailand, followed by $122 million to Myanmar and $27 million to Cambodia. The exports to these countries are showing good growth and there is also good scope for exploring these markets.”

To further enhance this demand and explore more export opportunities the council has been actively taking initiatives and sending regular delegations to the SEA and other regions across globe.

As a part of this initiative, the council in confirmation with the respective embassies of Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar has decided to send the delegation to these countries. The members of the delegation will first visit Bangkok and participate in the buyer seller meet and conduct meetings with the registration authority and ministry of health on November 25 and 26, 2013.

With the same agenda, the delegation is scheduled to visit Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Yangon in Myanmar from November 27 to December 3, 2013 respectively. Interested parties to join the delegation will have to contact the Council’s office on or before October 15, 2013.