Philips announces second Africa road show from Cape Town to Cairo to improve mother and child care and access to solar lighting

Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Cape Town, South Africa – Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG), will once again travel across Africa to raise awareness about how healthcare and lighting solutions can improve the quality of life across the continent. The Cape Town to Cairo road show 2011 (from 12th May to 11th July, 2011) is the second African road show undertaken by Philips. The road show will cover 12,000 kilometers in 62 days, visiting a total of twelve countries.



“As many developed countries are struggling to stimulate economic growth, a strong middle class of 313 million, or 34% of the African population1, is on the rise in what is still considered the world’s most impoverished continent,’’ said Dr. Gottfried Dutiné, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Markets and Innovation at Philips, in Cape Town today. “This group of mainly young, eager and mobile Africans is rapidly rivaling the middle classes of China and India. Philips sees this continent as a new growth market.”



The Philips team will engage with customers, governments, NGOs and media to discuss experiences and insights for addressing key challenges facing Africa today: Mother and Child Care, Women’s healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and healthy living.



Dialogue and training to support Mother and Child Care
Central to the Cape to Cairo 2011 road show is the theme Mother and Child Care. Mothers, newborn babies and children represent the well-being of a society and its potential for the future. Their healthcare needs cannot be left unmet without harming the society as a whole.



“Even in the 21st century, we still allow eight million children and close to half a million mothers around the world to die each year from preventable complications related to pregnancy and child birth.”2, said JJ van Dongen, General Manager, Philips Healthcare Africa & Country Manager Philips South Africa.“This makes the availability of and access to high quality, affordable care for all mothers and children an issue of high priority for policy makers and societies. Philips recognizes this need and through this road show wants to create dialogue and cooperation between governments, local healthcare workforces, non-governmental organizations, foundations, healthcare professional associations, and research institutions to help mothers, newborn babies and children obtain care.”



In addition to showcasing Philips solutions and starting a dialogue, the road show aims to deliver clinical education to help improve standards of care. There is a major training requirement across the continent. Recognizing the need for continuous education to advance and maintain clinical competencies, Philips will deliver customized training modules around Mother and Child Care in all key markets.



JJ van Dongen continues: “Philips has been dedicated to Mother and Child Care for over fourty years and provides the broadest range of ultrasound, monitoring, clinical informatics and patient care solutions to contribute to better healthcare standards for mother and child. Philips believes that the key to improving health outcomes is to develop strong partnerships with leading healthcare organizations. Next to training and education, we aim to improve the collaboration between public and private stakeholders.”



Solar lighting solutions for healthier and safer environment
During the roadshow Philips will also introduce new solar powered lighting solutions aimed at providing a healthier and safer home environment. Today an estimated 560 million Africans live without electricity3. Better lighting is likely to make home child birth safer and help reduce the very high infant mortality rate throughout the continent.



This is part of Philips’ commitment to both develop sustainable solutions for Africa and to foster its partnership with the Dutch government on the ‘Sustainable Energy Solutions for Africa’ (SESA) project, which aims to provide 10 million people with affordable, sustainable energy services across 10 sub-Saharan African countries by 2015.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs about 117,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 22.3 billion in 2010, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.