Picture at the left: From left to right: Annalin Van Biesen (Flanders Investment and Trade), Niek Van Overberghe (MOLECUBES NV), Gwenn Sonck (Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce), Peter Tanghe (Flanders Investment and Trade)
On January 23, the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) organized a networking dinner focused on: “China for Flemish Tech Companies: to avoid or to engage?” After an introductory speech by Ms Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, Mr Peter Tanghe, Science & Technology Counselor for Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT) in China, shared his insights about the current state and future opportunities for Flemish tech entrepreneurs across different industries in Digital, Climate and Health Technology. An outline of his speech will follow next week. Then, Mr Niek Van Overberghe, Head of Sales, MOLECUBES NV, offered his first-hand perspective arising from Molecubes’ experience in China.
Annalin Van Biesen is the new Area Manager East Asia of Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT). She introduced FIT and the subsidies companies can apply for.
Mr Niek Van Overberghe, said that Molecubes has a radically different approach by combining the latest advances in technology with user-friendly and compact systems. The company offers new insights by providing pre-clinical imaging solutions. It offers a comprehensive and fast way to visualize pathologies in 3D. The company was established in 2016 and has 25 employees. So far 137 CUBES have been installed. The company is active in more than 30 countries and its customers are large pharma and biotech companies. Molecubes won the “Lion of the Export” award in 2021.
Preclinical imaging is increasingly popular in China. In 2017, domestic pre-clinical products were launched. Since the first sale in the Chinese market in 2019, the company observed a rapid growth. It has a main distributor in Beijing, a local representative in Shanghai, and distributors and agents in other areas. Challenges in the Chinese market are the strong price competition of domestic manufacturers and a very aggressive and specification-driven market. Moreover, it is not easy to find a good service engineer fluent in a European language, and it is difficult to monitor and steer processes. A key learning is that in China timelines can be extremely accelerated and challenging projects are driven by collaboration between multiple institutions.
Sales pitches in English are difficult as less than 1% of the population speak English. Training a distributor is a good idea, but many distributors go bust within 3 to 5 years. If that doesn't work, hire an employee and treat them well. Setting up a wholly-owned local entity is not very complicated but it is useful to speak with Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) to get recommendations. Provide detailed installation instructions and ensure the installation process can only be done in one way or local creativity will create problems that need to be solved by team Belgium. Remote support can be hindered by the Chinese firewall. It is difficult to contact end users unless fluent in Chinese. Local competition is largely on par with western technology. Import tax exemption is possible for academic customers. Soon after the first CUBE was installed in China, a similar device was introduced by a local manufacturer, but Molecubes' product is technologically advanced enough to ensure a 2 to 3 year head start.
A Q&A session and networking dinner concluded the event.
Are you interested in finding out more? Contact us via: info@flanders-china.be
