The lack of ability to compete with the global players has relegated China's 16,000 domestic medical manufacturers to the lower-end part of the market, gaining them a market share of just $2.73 million in a market that topped $44.42 billion in 2014, according to the publication.

Worse still for China's health care system, imported equipment is much more expensive than it is in the countries of origination – 50 percent to 100 percent more, sometimes even more. A $200 GE intravascular stent costs between $3,000 and almost $5,000, for example.


Liao Xinpo, of the Guangdong Health and Family Planning Commission, told China Times that local hospitals tend to buy imported because they get high kickbacks – up to 40 percent on equipment, 20 percent on medicines.

Since the government started pushing domestic medical equipment development in 2013, capacity rose to $27.36 billion from $2.88 billion in 2001. The government started to step up efforts in fostering the development of the domestic medical equipment industry in 2013, a year after the market began to take off, according to the publication, adding that this rapid growth has also pushed domestic firms to scale up through mergers to become more competitive, with 35 mergers so far as of last September.

"We anticipate continued high, sustainable growth, especially as health care has been, and will remain, a key focus of the Chinese government. With the ongoing health care reform and internet boom in China, we expect more positive news and exciting investment opportunities ahead," Yang Liu, chairman of Atlantis Investment Management, co-founder of China Times Investments and managing director of Riverwood Asset Management (Cayman) Ltd., told Citywire Global.

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