Mindrays! - Consular Outreach to Shenzhen Mindray in

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: At an August 25 meeting with Congenoffs, Shenzhen
Mindray officials - whose company is a fast-growing producer of
low-cost medical diagnostic equipment - emphasized the importance of
U.S. trade shows in their overall sales growth. Despite Mindray's
heavy research and development focus, its products do not appear on
the technology alert list (TAL); most of the company's employees are
of little TAL concern. Note: This is the third of three cables about
how the consular section is reaching out to Shenzhen companies to
better understand the South China business environment and visa
needs. (see Refs A and B). END SUMMARY



2. (U) Shenzhen Mindray is a Chinese medical device company that has
received significant U.S. funding through venture capital firms in
the United States. Although Mindray executives told us that U.S.
investors had cashed out in 1999, the company does plan to open a
new R&D center in Seattle and will seek to raise funds for expansion
by offering an initial public offering on the New York Stock
Exchange in 2007. Recent press reports confirm Mindray will trade
under the symbol "MR" and will seek to raise USD 276 million in its
IPO.

Shenzhen Mindray - More Science than Science Fiction


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3. (U) Shenzhen Mindray, located in the glittering NanShan district
of Shenzhen where the towering headquarters of ZTE (Ref C) casts a
shadow on Mindray's smaller office, is a bio-medical electronics
company with a 15 year history. Beginning in 1991 as a humble
distributor of patient monitors in China, company founders sought
venture capital funding from the United States and aggressively
reinvested revenues from previous years into research and
development. Today, the firm has its own lines of medical
diagnostic equipment; it designs, manufactures, and markets patient
monitors, ultrasound machines, and clinical laboratory equipment
such as hematology and urine analyzers. Mindray recently entered
the anesthesia machine market. Mindray markets under its own name
but also serves as an OEM manufacturer for foreign medical product
companies such as Datascope and BCI.



4. (SBU) Jie Liu, Vice President of International Marketing, Sammie
Su, Marketing Manager, and Lisa Li, Deputy Manager from the
President's Office told Congenoffs that Mindray's workforce
consisted of 2420 employees and they emphasized that the company was
primarily a medical device R&D firm. Mindray does perform all of
its own manufacturing due to the narrowness of its market and the
high requirements of the Food and Drug Administration and other
regulatory agencies, but over 800 of its employees are engineers
engaged in R&D, and 70 percent of them have graduate degrees.
Marketing comprises another third of the workforce; a third of its
employees work in Mindray's factory in Xili, a short drive away.

VISAS


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5. (SBU) Mr. Liu explained that while Mindray is making great
strides in developing state-of-the-art technology in medical
devices, it still cannot compete in the United States, Canada,
Australia, and Western Europe with the likes of industry giants
General Electric, Philips, and Siemens. Mindray thus purposefully
tries to develop lower-cost, but still high-tech, products to suit
its primary markets: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Ms.
Su explained that while the United States is a small market for
Mindray, four large medical device trade shows held in the United
States each year attract many potential purchasers from markets such
as Latin America. The company's ability to send marketing and
engineering teams of 12-15 people to each of these shows is crucial
to its efforts.



6. (SBU) Mindray's main complaint about the visa process was that
wait times are unpredictable due to administrative processing and
issued visas are usually only for one entry. Ms. Su further
commented that one entry visas are extremely inconvenient for
company staff as they often need to transit the United States twice
to visit with customers in Latin America on the same trip. A single

GUANGZHOU 00030941 002 OF 002


entry visa forces employees to take less desirable routing. (Note:
Visas issued after a Mantis Special Advisory Opinion are limited to
single entry, three months. End note.) Conoffs explained they
understood the frustration and that the meeting would help line
officers better understand travel needs.

Comment


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7. (SBU) Conoffs in the past have felt unease with issuing visas to
applicants from Mindray without seeking a SAO, due in large part to
the company's heavy emphasis on medical device research and
development. After this facility tour and dialogue, Conoffs came
away with the firm belief that Mindray is what it states itself to
be: a manufacturer and producer of largely lower-cost,
hospital-quality medical products. While high-tech in design, the
products are primarily for hospital and clinical use in aiding
patient diagnosis. In addition, the impending IPO on the New York
Stock Exchange should make the company's plans and financing more
transparent. None of Mindray's current product lines appears to be
on the technology alert list. While Conoffs agreed that Mindray and
its products should be monitored and were wary about Mr. Liu's
unwillingness to comment on the founders backgrounds, there seems
little need to perform SAOs on most applicants.

GOLDBERG