The UAE’s healthcare industry is undergoing huge developments in the whole Gulf region. In 2015, interchange between Italy and the UAE confirmed a positive trend in healthcare, marking various records, including the import / export of medical products which achieved a turnover of approximately 74 million dollars and a 16% annual growth rate. With the upcoming Expo, the demand for health products and services is bound to increase, with new and interesting investment opportunities for Italian companies operating in this sector.
As a general rule, the import and export of products and medical devices in the United Arab Emirates is regulated by the Ministry of Health which issues a special approval for categories of products “for human use for the purpose of diagnosis, prevention, monitoring or treatment.”
Once the special approval is obtained, in order to proceed to the granting of the import authorization, the Customs Authority requires the registration of the products in the Data Bank of the Ministry of Health, and verifies the regularity of the accompanying document of each imported product.
To date, customs control is computerized, therefore automatic, and in case of invalid documents the permission for customs clearance of the goods is not issued. The goods either remain in storage, or they are sent back to the port of origin, at the expense of the sender.
On the route towards Dubai 2020, Italian companies will need targeted promotional actions for keeping an adequate portion of the market in the sector against increasingly competitive foreign competitors, who see in the UAE a market of choice, in order to present complete offers and to better exploit the various opportunities offered by the country.
(Bologna Office – Linda Tontodonati – 0039(0)51 2750020)
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