DISABILITY solutions provider Easibathe is hoping to set up two bases in China by the start of next year in a bid to take a slice of the the country’s accessibility product market.

The Gateshead company has appointed Grace Zhao as a business development manager help it offer support and services to a country with an estimated 83million disabled people.

Zhao will visit factories of potential suppliers, translate company brochures and documentation and assist with legal work, enabling the company to operate in China. Easiaccess has already developed a Mandarin website.

Chairman Martin Cook said: “I’ve been going to China on various trade missions since 2001. In the last two or three years I’ve become aware that while there are a lot of products coming out of the Chinese rehab industry, not many of them are sold in China itself.

“They’re making the same product and design mistakes we made as a country in the early years and no one seems to be putting a one-stop shop together.

“The Paralympics took place in Beijing just after the Olympics in 2008, and the stadium disabled facilities were poor.

“For the same money they spent doing what they did, they could have had something suitable. It was built with the best of intentions, but it just didn’t work.

“We’re currently speaking to two or three Government departments. By January 2012, we want to have two branches in China, one in the north and one in the south. We’ve had exceptional support from UKTI and One North East, in particular UKTI business development manager Dr Zhengming Yang.”