Many people in Bangladesh are struggling to pay for healthcare as it is expensive in the country mainly due to overpriced medical equipment from traditional foreign sources.

Against this backdrop, Bangladeshi healthcare providers are trying to make a change by seeking affordable equipment from China.

Gawshal Azam Mithu is an importer and supplier of healthcare equipment and devices from China.

"We can provide a very good (Chinese) machine at very low cost and patients can get good treatment at low cost," Mithu told Xinhua on the sidelines of a medical exhibition held in Dhaka last week.

"The quality of Chinese equipment is very good," said Mithu, managing director of the local Pulse Technologies.

He said they have been promoting Chinese medical equipment in the Bangladeshi market.

"Ninety-five percent of the equipment (in his outlet) is China-made," he said, including an ultrasonogram, ECG and biochemistry analyzer.

"And we can provide these devices in the Bangladeshi market at very low cost," he said, while busy with receiving visitors in his stall at the expo.

Conference and Exhibition Management Services Limited (CEMS), a global event management company, organized the international expo titled "Meditex Bangladesh 2022" through its Bangladeshi wing. It was the biggest exhibition in Bangladesh for the medical, clinical and healthcare industry.

"If we compare with Japanese or German machinery, for example, if a Chinese machine costs one lakh taka, then the German machine costs three to five lakh taka. But the quality and performance of our one lakh taka product is the same," said Mithu.

"So if you use this low price product, there will be many establishments and ordinary people will get more services," he said.

Md Monayem, director of Bangladesh Medical Items Limited, another local firm, said they are marketing Chinese products, especially NICU products, in the Bangladeshi market. "The quality of these Chinese products is very good," he noted.

"We can compete with products from Türkiye... and customer feedback of the product is very good. We're getting good feedback from private clinics, corporate hospitals and various institutions," said the supplier.

Eric, director of Sansure Biotech Inc. in south Asia, said the company was a "top-three China molecular diagnostic kits manufacturer in the past years."

"During the outbreak of COVID-19, we have sold more than 3 million testing kits in the Bangladeshi market."

"We care about quality. We care about after-sales service and we have our sales people and service people who are traveling in Bangladesh in the past three years," said Eric.

"We have more than 300 products which have the CE Certification. Our machine also gets the approval of the U.S. FDA. We sell to more than 160 countries and regions in the world."

Edward Guo, country manager of Shenzhen Emperor Electronic Technology Co., Ltd, said "our company is a very professional ultrasound machine manufacturer."

With 25 years of development, it is very well established as a manufacturer of medical devices, he said.

At the expo, the company brought its latest products, including color Doppler ultrasound, he said.

As Bangladesh is a developing country, Chinese products are perfect to meet the demand of the Bangladeshi market, he said, adding the company is "focusing on this area for many years and we have a lot of end user installations in Bangladesh."

"And we are here looking for more strong partners to join us," said Guo.