In a major boost to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in medical device industry, the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME) has entered into a strategic collaboration with Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) as its second industry facilitator at Visakhapatnam which will house the first government funded medical device park in India.

The medical device park will make India an import independent country for medical equipment industry.  The collaboration would help setting up a facilitation desk at AMTZ which would act as a one stop shop for all queries of members of WASME.

WASME comes with an international congregation of medium and small scale manufacturers and has a substantial presence in India with a large number of component manufacturers in its fold.

Such strategic associations will act as a catalyst in the confidence building of manufacturers and building a long-term relationship with them. With special focus on MSME manufacturers, WASME provides a global platform for MSMEs to come and set up their units at AMTZ.

After the launch of the Expression of Interest (EOIs) for various common scientific facilities and manufacturing units, these collaborations will bring about required additional stakeholder synergies and interest among the interested manufacturers and/or service providers.

Proposed to be built on 271 acres of land with a seed capital of Rs. 25 crore, AMTZ will set up in-house high capital intensive common scientific facilities helping medical device manufacturers reduce the cost of manufacturing in the country.

The medical device park is proposed to have all such facilities in-house that are required for specialized product verticals to reduce manufacturing process costs. The park will provide modern state-of- the-art common facilities such as specialised laboratories, warehousing and testing centre apart from 150 to 200 independent manufacturing units, each in a built-in ready to use area of 0.5 to 1 acre each.

The AMTZ with in-house high investment scientific facilities would help manufacturers reduce the cost of manufacturing by more than 40 per cent to 50 per cent.

Currently, due to lack of such centrally located shareable facilities, either manufacturers do not undertake production of technologies requiring them or send their products abroad for process up-gradation and value addition.