China unveiled a three-year, 850 billion yuan ($128 billion) reform of its medical system in January 2009.

As part of this the nation aims to expand access to healthcare throughout the country and use some of the earmarked funds for medical infrastructure construction, involving building new medical care facilities and renovating old ones, which in turn provides huge business opportunities for medical device manufacturers.

According to the Ministry of Health, in 2011, China is likely to add at least 300 county-level hospitals, 1,000 town-level health centers and 13,000 village-level clinics.

A report from the China Association for Medical Devices Industry showed that sales of medical devices in the nation reached 61.4 billion yuan ($9.68 billion) in 2010, up 35.84 percent from 2009.

The average growth of China's medical device market is expected to be 30 percent in the coming years, it said.

Foreign enterprises' active involvement in China's medical reform has been largely facilitated after China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

As part of its WTO commitment, China pledged to cancel import approval rights on large medical equipment with a unit price above $20,000 or price of a batch at more than $200,000 since 2003, which helps foreign companies to introduce their latest products in China.

China has also promised to reinforce the protection on intellectual property rights, which encourages multinational companies to introduce new technologies and conduct research and development.

However, Jiang Feng, chairman of the China Association for Medical Devices Industry, said that foreign companies are facing fierce competition from domestic players, given the mature sales network, understanding of local market and tailored products of Chinese players.

"The shortcut for them is to cooperate with local companies to achieve win-win results," he said.