My name is Tony Ho, and I'm the Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the company. It's just a pleasure to be back in Auckland and for the board to be reporting back to the stakeholders, namely you guys. Before I start, let me introduce you to the board. We have Juliette Hull, our Independent Non-Executive Director. We have Dr. Dexter Cheung, who is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of our Technology Committee. We have Marty Dillon, our Chief Executive Officer. I have Chris Horn, who is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee. Next to him is Guy Robertson, our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. In attendance, as I mentioned earlier, is Tadius Manupeyi from Hall Chadwick, our audit firm. Through the auspices of the webcast, we have our staff in Sydney and new shareholders in Asia who are joining us on this occasion.
Coming back to the introduction, let me just say that this annual shareholders meeting is also a webcast to all our shareholders who are unable to join us this morning. More and more now, it's now becoming a requirement of the stock exchange to have hybrid meetings. It's sad in a way in that we used to have a good physical roadmap at our meetings, and now more and more of our shareholders are now just dialing in. It has its advantage, but it also has a disadvantage in that you don't have that human interface between the directors and our shareholders. Let me just move quickly to housekeeping. We obtained coffee outside, which I encourage all of you to help yourself. We're quite relaxed in this environment. I don't get slighted if you pop up and walk out and get yourself a cup of tea or coffee.
The toilet facility is right at the end. That's important. Importantly, could you just put your mobile to silent mode to avoid any interruption? The Company Secretary has advised that there's a quorum of shareholders present, and I can see that it is, and that the notice of meeting has been properly distributed to shareholders and all those persons who are entitled to receive it within the 28 days requirement. It should be pointed out that the NZX listing rules only require 21 days' notice, and the corporation's law actually only requires 14 days' notice. In the interests of corporate governance, there's a lot of shareholders. There's one major shareholder, plus the New Zealand Shareholders' Association has encouraged 28 days' notice.
We have worked very hard, Guy and his team, to ensure that we fulfill the commitment given to one of our major shareholders, that we will provide 28 days' notice to shareholders for shareholders' meeting. The agenda for the day is pretty straightforward. I'll do a quick introduction followed by a presentation from Marty. There is no Q&A after Marty's presentation because we leave it all towards the end to consolidate all the Q&A. Marty would present, and we would leave it to the end. We move to the formal part of the business. There are six resolutions to be put before shareholders for your approval. After that, we move to general business. That's always the most exciting part, more so for this year, because of all the positive momentum that the company is generating, notwithstanding our year-end results. Let me just see where I am.
In terms of the financial reports, I must also touch on the fact that the financial report is prescriptive in that it's prepared according to the corporation's law of New Zealand and the listing rules of the NZX. Unfortunately, in New Zealand, you have big companies like Auckland Airport and small companies like TruScreen. Sometimes shareholders tend to compare the financial report of TruScreen the way we do it to how they do it in some of the bigger corporations. All I'm saying is that we are compliant with all the requirements. For us to try to match the disclosure of the big corporations, we would have to employ another person just to keep up with all that. At this stage of corporate development, it's fair to say that our disclosure is based on compliance with accounting standards, compliance with the listing rules, compliance with the corporation law.
Some shareholders have requested additional information. As much as possible, we would try to incorporate it into our annual report. In some instances, it's just not feasible to provide additional information that would require additional cost to the company. We can use those additional funds more effectively in marketing rather than putting things in the annual report just to tick the box. On that basis, I just want to ensure that the rest of you are sure that we are compliant, even though some advocacy group may say that we should do more. We will try to do more, regardless. It's a little bit difficult sometimes because some of the disclosure requirements in Australia are different from New Zealand, and some of the advocacy groups in New Zealand tend to adopt some of the Australian requirements and say we should do it here.
However, it's not in the law, in the listing rules requirements. On that basis, I'll just move on to my introduction for the meeting. We have received some 150 million proxies casting their votes, participating in today's meeting, representing about 20% of the company's issued capital. That's a very high number. I appreciate all those shareholders out there that make an effort to participate in the governance of your company. We will always interact with shareholders as much as possible by way of regular communications. Every time we make an announcement to the NZX, there's an email system that goes out to everyone. If you are not receiving those emails, please go into the share registry and add your email address to your shareholding because then you will get regular updates without having to go into the NZX to read the announcement.
All voting today will be done by poll as required by the NZX listing rules. Because we have a large number of shareholders out in the cyber world participating online, please bear with me as I go through all the processes and make sure that we tick the boxes so all the shareholders out there know the proper procedures. I know it can be a little bit boring going through all the do's and don'ts and all that. I've been advised by MUFG that we have to do that to make sure that we don't get accused of not informing shareholders. Let me then move to my introductory commentary. After five years with the company, Juliette Hull has resigned from the board at the conclusion of today's annual shareholders meeting.
She joined us exactly on the 11th of September, exactly five years ago, as a Non-Executive Director from J&J New Zealand. We went through very interesting times together, Juliette. Juliette stepped up and was appointed Acting CEO, Interim CEO during the COVID years when one of our previous CEOs, Victor, left the company. Juliette was interim from the 11th of September or from February 2021 till October 2022 when we appointed Beata Edling as the CEO to replace Juliette. On behalf of the board, Juliette, thanks for your significant contribution. We appreciate having you on board and providing all the healthcare expertise on the board. Later on in the formal resolution, you will be appointing, we will be shareholders will be asked to appoint a nominee, Ms. Christine Pairs, as the incoming director. I will leave that later when we come to the formal resolution.
For those of you who attended last year's annual shareholders meeting, I described 2024 as a watershed year. It was a very important part of our development journey of our device, which is sitting in front of you. It was a year where, after three long years of clinical trials in China and 15,000 patients being trialed over 16 provinces in China, it was completed in late 2023, and the results were collated and published. It overwhelmingly shows that our device works very well when compared to the conventional methodology of Pap test, Pap smear, and other new technology that was emerging. It was a watershed year. Through that, our technology was then recognized and incorporated into national screening guidelines to be used in China by two major medical organizations. It's like the Royal Colleges in the Western economy. As well as that, it was approved for use.
It was put on the national screening guidelines by the Ministry of Health in Vietnam, in Russia, not that we sell a lot to Russia at the moment, and also Mexico. Mexico was a breakthrough because we have always been in Mexico since we started. Our approval was only for the private sector, but not in the public sector, where close to 80% of patients in Mexico go to the public sector. In 2024, it was a big milestone where we secure approval to go into the public sector in Mexico. 2024 was also the recovery year for COVID. There was a lot of hesitation around the world as to what's going to happen now that COVID is over. Government needs to cut back on spending to recover on all the money that they dole out during the COVID years.
We were pleased to see that in our markets, all the Ministry of Health resumed the public health activities rather than tightening their belts and saying, "No, we can't afford it anymore because we spent too much money during COVID." In China, that continued. In Mexico, they continued, although there's a new government. Even in Vietnam, they continue with their public health initiatives. It was pleasing to see that our business was not interrupted. Now, in 2025, it's a slightly different, different macro environment. It became a year of global recognition of our technology. That has been an exciting year in 2025. May not make a lot of sales, yes, but we were finally recognized and acknowledged by the World Health Organization as an important part of what they are doing to try to eradicate cervical cancer globally. They have a strategy that they announced, enunciated in 2023.
TruScreen was acknowledged as a growing technology, but not really embraced by the World Health Organization until late in 2024, when we were one of the two or three companies invited to a very high-level conference at Edinburgh in Scotland. Marty was there to present on behalf of the company on what we do with our technology. Within the rooms were all representatives of the Ministry of Health worldwide, mostly from the emerging nations. During that two days of presentation and discussions, it finally dawned on the participants that the TruScreen technology is ideally suited for what they want and what they need in their countries in order to meet the global strategies set down by the World Health Organization. Attitude has changed at the highest level, global level. I describe it to Marty time and time again that the World Health Organization is now quietly shepherding inquiries to us.
They cannot openly do it because it's against each other because they do not endorse any technology. They are very conscious of the fact that they have to remain neutral and impartial. The fact that we are getting inquiries from the Ministry of Health from interesting countries like Uzbekistan, that you will hear a lot of later on, has indicated that someone somewhere within the World Health Organization is quietly saying, "You guys need to talk to TruScreen if you really want to achieve the strategic objectives of your country's objective to eliminate cervical cancer." Cervical cancer is one of those, it's the number one preventable cancer. It can be prevented and it saves lives. It takes seven to nine years to become a fatality. During those periods, you can actually intervene and save lives.
That is now becoming a major focus for the company to push ahead, to commercialize our operation, and to deal with all those inquiries that are coming through. We have now moved, the business started off slowly many years ago, and we tend to just go the traditional route of dealing with key opinion leaders, doing it in the public system, the occasional private clinics in Mexico. We always wanted to break into the mass public screening programs. I am delighted to advise that it's finally beginning to happen with the quiet assistance of the World Health Organization. We have already now signed contracts to launch the public screening program in Ho Chi Minh City together with the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association, which is a government-funded NGO. It's exciting because it's 260,000 women who will be screened over a five-year period.
You will hear from Marty later on that the 260,000 is more likely to move up to half a million because the size of the city has now been doubled. The government has decided to consolidate the different districts and provinces to enlarge the Ho Chi Minh City limits. Marty would deal with that a little bit more. Uzbekistan, big opportunity, Central Asia. We tend to look at Central Asia and say, "Right, a bunch of nomads riding on their short-legged horses and just moving from places to places." In reality, the cities are ultra-modern. The beauty about it is that all the Central Asian nations, the STAN nations as I describe it regularly, they're all Russian speaking. All the doctors are trained in Saint Petersburg, in Moscow, in Russia. Our technology is on the list of the Russian government that is accepted as a screening technology.
All of a sudden, there's a lot of dots that are beginning to be joined up. Uzbekistan is our first encounter. Like all dealings with government, it took a while. The gestation period was slow and tortuous. We first talked about it in March 2024. It all happens. I still remember I was in Auckland in May 2024 when I got a call from Marty to say that, "Ooh, they now want to talk to us." I said, "Be cautious because you're dealing with bureaucrats. You've got to go through a lot of process." It wasn't till the end of 2024, beginning of 2025, that it became a reality that they were serious. It's a matter of working out how do we get across the line in terms of pricing support in the middle of Central Asia. Finally, we then had to have our product registered.
It took a while for the registration. Even though there's a lot of government support at the highest level, it should take what, four months, five months, six months for the product to be registered. Once registered, then Marty hopped on the plane and spent three, four days in Tashkent to sort out all the details with the various professors and all that. As usual, in any emerging markets, there's always politics that get involved in terms of which department is going to take who's going to champion it. Everybody wants to champion it because they get the department to get a share of the funding from the government. We're still working on that, and we're progressing very well. I think we signed an MOU for a pilot screening to take place. After that, they want to introduce a national screening program in Uzbekistan.
The beauty about it is that they have high ambition. The department, the Ministry of Health has high ambition to do 90% of all the women. We have to actually slow them down and say, "You probably can't do 90%. If you do 40 or 50%, you're doing very well." It's easier to pull them back rather than to get them up and running. Zimbabwe was another excitement. I think when we first started a public screening program in Zimbabwe in the provincial province of what was that again?
Masvingo.
Msingo. I can never pronounce that Msingo province. Now they have decided that they would extend the provincial public screening to the capital city of Harare. That's very exciting. There's a recognition of the fact that it's working, is contributing to the positive impact of the public health system in Zimbabwe. We've just completed our revalidation trials, and very shortly, we will commence public screening in Harare. Hopefully, in years to come, it will be a national program. That is the excitement that we are now moving into our third pillar. Our second pillar, we have the traditional, then the second pillar is now public health screening, lower margin but high volume and greater throughput. You know, as our business, the higher volume we have, it will lower the cost of production for the single-use sensor that will provide a better return for our bank for our bucks.
We have also entered into a strategic alliance with China's leading HPV DNA test kits manufacturer, Dalton BioScience. We kept encountering Dalton products when we go head-to-head with hospitals like they say, "Right, you want your product in, but we also, we are using this DNA testing kit from Dalton." It's not comparable. It's for testing different ends of the spectrum of HPV testing. We reach out to them and we start talking about why do we work together. I mean, like we can look at distribution of your products in our network elsewhere in the world. Maybe you can even help us distribute TruScreen within China itself. They have their own network of distributors. That has been going quite well. Started off slowly because we were getting to know one another. Like typical Chinese companies, they don't get too excited until they get to know you.
The first three or four months was just getting to know one another, getting to know their products. It reached a stage now where we have employed a dedicated person to drive that project because, as I always say, if you don't have someone accountable, then that project will not go ahead. It's exciting. Of course, we also have new distributors in Indonesia and in India that have shown an interest in participating in the Dalton products. That, in a nutshell, are some of the excitement that Marty is going to share with us. Right. On that basis, I think, Marty, maybe I should.
Grab it at the line.
Pass it to you because I think I eat up too much of your time.
I had up my time and stole my thunder. Yeah, fantastic. Thanks, Tony. And thank you, shareholders, not just for attendance, but for continued support. Of course, Tadias, for auditing us and keeping us on the straight and narrow on the financial side. Good to have you here, Tadias. Interestingly, Thaddeus, your wife is from Masvingo Province. What a great connection. When we first met Thaddeus last year, we Tadias ourselves and we talked about Zimbabwe and that we're in Masvingo Province. We just found out that, again, our auditor's wife is from that province of Zimbabwe. A lovely juncture of meetings. I'll just roll through. Tony talked about a year of global recognition, which it is. I'll run through those as we get here. I'll talk about the strategy we'll put in place to build on that, as Tony calls them, green shoots that are springing up now.
We have to grow them to profitability. We are now, after some delay, moving towards that. Delays that I'd hoped last year wouldn't occur but did occur. The other part is why we focus, for those that are new shareholders or haven't heard me talk about why we focus on emerging markets and not on the U.S. and Western Europe. It's that this device, the dream was that we would be able to create a device that was free of the need for laboratory infrastructure and of cadres of expert laboratory technicians and trained colposcopists, et cetera., that you need for the traditional Western methods of screening for cervical cancer. In emerging markets, 75% of the incidence of cervical cancer globally is in the markets that don't have screening campaigns. 90% of the mortality from cervical cancer is from these markets.
That's why we focus on them because that's where the lives will be saved. The top line for TruScreen, a revenue-generating company. We manufacture two versions of this device, one in Australia, one in China. We're having a Chinese manufactured device de-risk us from any arbitrary decisions of the Chinese government about preference for Chinese manufactured product, every imported product. For every patient that has this device used to screen them for cervical cancer, we use a disposable single-use sensor, which provides us with a recurring revenue stream. Global sales last year, NZD 1.7 million, nearly entirely attributable to a shortfall from both the delay in Zimbabwe, where 20,000 patients should have been screened until their decision to require a revalidation in Harare. 20,000 patients there is $200,000 to us, so about NZD 350,000
You can see you're waiting on a delay coming out of Vietnam and product registration in Indonesia, and it makes up that shortfall that occurred. Uzbekistan, which took much longer to come through the politics and the bureaucracy there, it took a lot of time to move forward on recommendations to them coming out of the World Health Organization. This year, I have been consistent to the market that I expect sales to be around NZD 2.8 million. Both sales will be back-ended because we have to wait for the Zimbabwe programs to commence. I'll deal with these as we go through for the Ho Chi Minh City program to come on board properly and for Indonesia and India to achieve their sales forecasts, which are, because of the recent introduction and attainment of registration, only now starting to bear fruit. There's a breakdown of the figures here.
Again, re-explanation that because of the delays in Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, that we were short for the year, but where we intend to grow next year is laid out in quite detail in this presentation. I'll move to that so you all have some comfort that we're on track at the moment to achieve that forecast. The top line statistics for TruScreen in our position, over 1 million women have been screened by TruScreen. There has never been an adverse event reported in those over 1 million women. 232 devices are in operation globally. Over 1,000 healthcare professionals have been trained on the use of TruScreen. We have World Health Organization and Unitaid recognition. For those who don't know what Unitaid is, Unitaid is a concept created out of six countries in the UN. I think it was Brazil, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Norway, and I always forget, and Italy.
Yep. That decided to take part of the IATA ticket fee of every airfare purchased in those countries and move that into a charity or an NGO that would fund a global fight in emerging markets against major diseases. Cervical cancer is one of those. It's hosted inside the World Health Organization. Hospitals and clinics using TruScreen, 112 countries with regulatory approval, 14. We have nine regulatory approvals in process at the moment. 30+ clinical performance validations. There are multiple factors of 10 above that of clinical trials that have been done, but of major clinical trials of clinical importance over 30. Regulatory approvals, sorry. Our global recognition, I should always get to that first. It's important to look at the focus. The focus is nearly a vertical line originally from Australia and New Zealand, vertical through East Asia. We have that now in an unbroken line.
New Zealand and Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and Russia. We go now from the Antarctic to the Arctic in an unbroken line vertically. That was the key strategy of the business. Aligned to that now is the engagement of India and Central Asia, forming a link through west from our original target markets and growing recognition in the southern parts of Africa. Zimbabwe, Eswatini, there will be news coming out of South Africa shortly. Of course, we have Central America, also North America, which is Mexico.
We have now some activity commencing in Central and South America, Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Recognition, World Health Organization, Unitaid, the Clinton Health Access Initiative in the U.S., the Daffodil Foundation in Australia, the Chinese Obstetricians and Gynecologists Association, the Chinese Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, the Russian Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines, and the Vietnam Hospital Technical List all recognize TruScreen for its value in screening patients in emerging markets where there is limited or nil access to traditional laboratory screening processes. International approvals are laid out here for you in Europe, China, Australia, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and Uzbekistan. Our international quality accreditations, which are audited every year, and that process will come through again in October this year.
ISO 13485, which is the basis of all quality assurance for medical device manufacture, IEC 60601-1, which is the electrical safety standard for medical devices, IEC 60601-1-2, which is the EMC emissions standard for medical devices, and of course, the CE mark, which is our prima facie proof of quality for global recognition. The TruScreen device, and again, I've explained it many times, but I know that we have new shareholders following our successful capital raising. The device works in its simplest form. It uses light and electricity to identify abnormalities in the cervix. The device has three electrodes here and seven optical fibers coming through the center of this shaft. The electrodes stimulate the cervix with a very minor electrical charge. I think it's 0.78 mV. Because cervical tissue is moist or squamous, it can act as a battery, and it will store that for a number of milliseconds.
We measure the decay curve and capacitance of that decay of the bioimpedance of the cervix. On the optical side, we stimulate the cervix with red light, infrared, distant red, and green. Different tissue will reflect and refract that optical signal in different ways, so we take another measurement of that. There are 14 measurements a second on each spot of the cervix that we probe. The whole test takes about two minutes, and within a few seconds of the completion of that, you'll have your result. Is the patient abnormal or normal? If they're abnormal, they get treated immediately on the spot because they're not waiting for a result to come back from a laboratory. If they're normal, they can go home and come back for retesting in three to five years. Tony's talked about the pillars that we've been putting in place for our sales.
We operated originally on a single vertical pillar, which was the indirect channel going through distributors in markets of our choice. We've added on in the last 18 months a significant recognition with NGOs, Ministries of Health, and the WHO to be a direct channel direct to Ministries of Health and NGOs for what are major public screening programs. Zimbabwe is a good example of that. We are paid directly by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health for our product to be used in their screening programs in remote areas. In Ho Chi Minh City, we will be paid directly by the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association. The distributor provides what's called third-party logistics support, and they get a fee for that.
The financial relationship and the management of the screening protocols are all conducted directly between TruScreen and the Ministry of Health, or TruScreen and the non-government organization that is managing the program. The same will happen in Uzbekistan, where it was directed to us that we deal through no intermediary but directly with the Ministry of Health and now with the Deputy Chair of the Committee for Women's Health in the Uzbek government. These are some major achievements of TruScreen to be able to say we now have these direct contacts. How they were achieved was through a lot of hard work over many years to gain recognition from the World Health Organization and other global bodies, but it's now bearing fruit. The other part that Tony spoke about was the product portfolio expansion with Dalton BioScience. That is now starting to bear fruit.
The first of those markets is India. I will come to that a bit later in the presentation. The capital raise that we conducted earlier this year raised about NZD 4 million . A great show of faith from existing and new shareholders. A lot of it underpinned with the acquisition of new shareholders or the support of new shareholders coming out of the Asian markets. We started with money from New Zealand, and we always see New Zealand as the core of our support. We went on to the Australian Stock Exchange, but through a program that Tony and I worked with our partners, Spark Plus Private Limited, conducted roadshows through New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and gained traction in those Asian markets. I'm going back up there in about a month to strengthen those relationships and build upon our Asian market support.
I think that's a key to the future success of the company, to not just sell into Asia as a product, but to sell into Asia as a company and continue to strengthen those investor relationships there. Our entry into public screening programs, I've detailed that quite strongly as a technology of choice. Tony's talked about the close to unique honor of being invited to present at Edinburgh, and not just to present, but to be part of the discussions that were to create a framework for the World Health Organization assessing how to handle the switch of focus from traditional laboratory-based screening to AI-enabled screening for cervical cancer, and then apply that to other diseases globally that are a major problem. Tony's right. There are only three companies invited to attend.
Of the companies that attended, TruScreen Group Limited is the only company that has a product approved for use in Europe, in China, and in all the countries we take part in. Other members there were from Ministries of Health, NGOs, and of course, some scientists and mathematicians who regaled us with a lot of big words that most of us didn't understand. There were some key learnings out of that about why TruScreen's decision to pursue its pathway of AI technology governance and management was a process that was formed seven years ago, eight years ago, has now proved to be the right pathway because it fits in with the way that major countries that we deal with are assessing devices. That is that you need to freeze your algorithm, not have it continually changing. Otherwise, all your clinical trials are wasted.
You need to not have patient data go external to a country's borders to an international cloud server to get a result because privacy laws now in nearly every country prohibit that. For example, in the European community, it's illegal to export patient data beyond European boundaries. In China, it's illegal to export data beyond the boundaries of China. In the U.S., it's the same. In Australia, it's the same. In Indonesia, it's the same. In Vietnam, it's the same. Everyone's adopted these privacy laws, which the mathematicians and scientists had in their silos of academia not recognized. They had built algorithms that depended upon cloud involvement and an international cloud. If they continue to go down that path, they will need a cloud server in every country that they do business. That means they will have an algorithm that is different in every country they do business.
They'll need a clinical trial to validate that algorithm in every country in which they do business. The logistics and the costs of that are hampering their attempts to move forward in this industry, whereas we've got the recognition now that our pathway was the most advisable. Vietnam, the single biggest program we've been engaged in. We signed a memorandum of understanding last year to go forward and create a program for the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association. Tony and I, in April, we signed the formal agreement, the contract with the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association and our distributor, GHS, on the conduct of that program, the financing, and the logistics.
In between the signing of those two documents, the Vietnam government had gone on a rationalization of a number of provinces in Vietnam and halved the number of provinces, doubling the size of the Ho Chi Minh City province. Just recently, we have commenced the Vietnam program. First car-drive patients were recruited. Training of the initial operators was completed, and the first screenings were conducted. There is an ongoing discussion now between the Ho Chi Minh City government and the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association, where the government is saying, "We want you to double the size of the program." Of course, now there's an argument over funding. We could end up, Tony's right, doubling the size of that program. That's a could because it's always dependent upon funding and upon administrative decisions that are out of our personal control.
We've been put on notice by the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association to prepare for that. In Zimbabwe, Dr. Carolina Velasquez, our Head of Clinical and Medical Affairs, has just returned from Zimbabwe, where they conducted the revalidation of our product in Harare, 150 patients in three days. You see there, Herbert from Southern Skies, our logistics and distribution provider, and the Ministry of Health, who have already themselves screened approximately 10,000 women each in programs under their control in Masvingo Province. There's the broader team that was part of the validation program there. Once analysis of that, we already know that the pre-results show that, yes, we will pass the validation, but that's anecdotal. It will take about a month for the formal analysis of data to be completed, in which case we will go ahead.
The forecast out of Zimbabwe is for 20,000 disposables and 16 devices for the remainder of this financial year. When we talk about back-ending our sales, this is a key reason for that. There's about NZD 400,000-NZD 450,000 in sales just in that program to take part in the final five months of the financial year. Uzbekistan is a great example of the World Health Organization quietly and behind the scenes moving a Ministry of Health towards us and away from a competitor. It was a two-horse race to be selected for the pilot program. If you look in these photos, the signing ceremony is with Professor Aral Atoniyazova. I've got to remember how to pronounce it correctly. Aral is not just a Professor of Medicine. She is the Deputy Chair of the Women's Health Committee in the Uzbek government, and she's a senator in the Uzbekistan government.
In the photo below, this myself next to me is Dr. Klara Yagareva. Dr. Klara Yagareva is the WHO consultant for Uzbekistan on women's health. It was her contacts in WHO that led her to contact us and reach out to us to be involved in this program. Of course, there's Aral, and next to them, the former Deputy Minister for Health in the Uzbek government, Professor Azadim Kamelov. This is the sort of recognition we're getting now in these emerging markets. It's coming through this soft, yeah, soft would be the best word, soft recommendations from the World Health Organization, where they can't support anyone in a commercial way and mention our brand names, but they go, "Oh, you have a look at Optel Electric Screening." When they use Optel Electric Screening, we're the only Optel Electric Screening device in the world. It is code for talk to TruScreen.
On medical affairs, our achievements, again, part of this global recognition, have been statutory this year. In October 2024, we were included in Uniaid's technology landscape report. That report was created for Unitaid out of the Daffodil Foundation in Australia, which is the old Australian Cancer Foundation. That is one of the most respected bodies globally for the conduct of screening programs globally because the Australian program is the most successful screening program in the world. When they say to someone, "We recognize now that the technology that works in Australia won't work in emerging markets," that is a significant signal to emerging economies that we don't need to pursue what works in countries that have already got a laboratory infrastructure. We need to look at other ways to do business.
Supporting the Daffodil Foundation was the Clinton Health Access Initiative in the U.S., which again looked at, looks, and it's a massive change. Don't look at what has worked best in developed countries who have a laboratory infrastructure. Look at what is needed to screen women in countries that don't have a laboratory infrastructure. That's the big change that's happened in the past 18 months. The Food and University study I've mentioned there, the Saudi Arabia study is interesting, very interesting. It was published, sorry, the Food and University study. It was published in Springer Nature. Springer Nature, for those that don't know it, is published by a publishing group out of Germany, with 130 years of medical publications behind them. Springer Nature is in the top 20 most impactful medical journals in the world.
I think it comes in at number 17 at the moment and sits about eight places behind The Lancet, with a journal impact factor of 48 for those that are interested in that. To be published in Spring and Nature is a significant global achievement. We're moving now to have the Koga paper that Tony talked about earlier published in the same journal because of its impact globally. The Saudi Arabian study had a particular conclusion about the suitability of TruScreen for screening in emerging markets. The Beijing study published in Dove Press demonstrated the sensitivity and specificity of TruScreen over traditional methods of screening, including the pap smear. We've spoken about the Dalton BioScience alignment with TruScreen, and I won't belabor that because Tony went into depth.
Other than to say, what is the difference between Dalton Bioscience's product for HPV screening and why is that so important to us? Traditional HPV screening is most often performed using PCR. PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, has a lot of handling steps in laboratories where you can get cross-contamination. You can get denaturing of samples. There are many inherent problems. When you look at the results for HPV DNA in clinical trials, you'll normally get an excellent result because it's being conducted in the best labs globally. When it's conducted in the real world, the performance drops off markedly because of these sample handling and process handling errors that occur in the average laboratory. This isn't just talking about emerging markets.
During the COVID epidemic, the Center for Disease Control in the United States had to suspend all COVID testing because of sample handling errors causing cross-contamination in their laboratory. They had to completely scrub their laboratory out and start afresh because the number of false positives and false negatives that were coming out of the Center for Disease Control had alarmed their own reporting systems. It is not just emerging economies that have problems with sample handling. It is a global factor that affects false positives and false negatives. The Dalton Bioscience system is a hybrid capture system which has fewer handling steps, fewer opportunities for mishandling, and fewer opportunities for cross-contamination. It has a lower rate of false positive and false negative results in the real world. China is our key market. China is 85% of our sales in FY 2025, I think 87% in FY 2024.
We hope this year that China will only be 70% of our global sales. Not that China's shrinking, just that the other markets, and again, I'll talk about Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, etc., will step up and take a bigger share of the pipe TruScreen sales. China is currently growing at 13%-1 5% of its previous year's sales, which was already 13% above the year before that. China's device installation is currently growing at 20%. The reason that the sales growth lags device installation is that for the first six months to a year of a device being installed, use in hospitals is slow. As it builds, the sales move up with it as more disposables are purchased. The size of the market in China, the number of hospitals, is growing at roughly 20%. The sales is growing between 13% and 15%.
That includes figures up to Q1 and to the end of August that are in my head. Of course, we're reaching the end of September. Shortly, you'll have our six-month results, which will confirm that. China's growth is based upon private sector expansion, public health insurance, public hospital adoption. Public health insurance and private sector expansion in China are two of the key things. We're now currently installed in the largest private hospital in the Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou, Shenzhen area. In the largest private hospital there. We're in the largest private hospital in Nanjing. We're moving into health check clinics, which is a private hospital activity inside public hospitals and parallel to public hospitals in three different provinces in China. On public health insurance, we have a rebate in Beijing. We're about to get one in Shanghai. We have one in Nanjing. It's growing.
We've got 11 approvals for pricing. Every province in China has a different pricing approval process. We have another 10 approvals that are in process at the moment. We have another three rebates in process. The closest one coming to those will be Shanghai, where the negotiation now is not whether we get a rebate, but how big the rebate will be. Vietnam, we have spoken at length about the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association program. I would like to also add that we're not just relying on that. Our distributor there, GHS, has six major hospitals that have already agreed to adopt and install TruScreen on top of the active ones, the three active we have already. There are another eight in process. GHS are focusing on South and Central Vietnam.
We are currently looking with GHS on a strategy of how to engage the northern parts of Vietnam, so Hanoi and surrounding areas. India. India, I would like to spend a little bit of time on. I've recently come back from meetings with Renovate. Following our discussions, shortly after them, we had our test license approved in India ahead of schedule. I am advised that we will shortly have our full import license approval within the next six weeks. Renovate have so far ordered exactly what they said they would order when they said they would order it. Next week, training will be conducted in four hospitals in Hyderabad and two hospitals in Delhi in phase I of their market penetration program. Phase two and phase three will follow over the course of the next three months.
We need the full import approval to finish phase three because the original test license only allows us to do 10 hospitals. Also in India, we were selected to be used in a program in Ladakh in northwest India. As you know, the recent floods caused a curtailment in that program, and that had to be put on hold. The medical expert who conducts those programs, Dr. Quek Swee Chong in Singapore, has selected us to be used, as I said, in northwest India, northeast India, and Nepal for screening programs. The engagement of India and Indonesia this year has done two significant things to TruScreen's distribution footprint. It has meant that we now have distribution arrangements in three of the most populous countries in the world. India has just overtaken China now as the most populated country in the world.
China is the second most populated, then the U.S., then Indonesia. We have three of the top four. We also have two of the top four economies in the world, China and India. China is number two. India is about to overtake Germany to go from number four to number three. Shortly, we'll have distribution in two of the top three economies in the world. Filling in that gap in India has been a project of mine since I first came onto TruScreen and we did the founding of TruScreen in late 2013. Because of its size, because of the horrendous loss of life in India from cervical cancer, it was always a target. It is an extremely difficult market to penetrate, and you have to find the right partner. I've had two failures. I always admit to that. Can't get everything right. Really do.
I believe that Renovate is the gem that we've been looking for because, as I said, every time they've said they would do something, they've done it, and usually slightly ahead of schedule. Their team are very impressive. They are also now in the process of registering the Dalton product for HPV DNA recognition. That will be our first HPV DNA market globally. They're assisting us to have the Dalton Bioscience product and TruScreen working on our joint submissions for what's called WHO PQ, which is pre-qualification for WHO funded programs globally. This relationship with Renovate could become one of our most important relationships globally. At the moment, it's Seaway Shanghai Technology in China, but I really have a good feeling about Renovate. They're opening offices in Dubai; it's currently open. They've already opened their office in Singapore. They're about to open in Amsterdam.
We're looking at all these markets with them about how they can take their experience with TruScreen and the Dalton product in India and build on that in these other markets for us. Mexico, Tony's spoken about Mexico. The big move there on public screening is there's been a lot of work done to get engaged in a program in Mexico with IMSS, the major medical insurer that insures about 80% of women in the public hospital system in Mexico. They have plans for a public screening program. They want 25% of that program. So 25% of the insured women in Mexico, of 80% of the insured women in Mexico, would be 20% of Mexico's women. 25% of the program is to be done using an AI-enabled device. We're the only AI-enabled device in the pretender documents.
It's relied, of course, upon funding approvals and Mexican government bureaucracy, but it looks like moving ahead at some stage in the next 12 months. We had hoped it would have moved ahead this calendar year, but again, things move very slowly at times in Mexico.
Africa, we have had, because of the success we've had over the years in Zimbabwe, even though there have been delays, it's still a standout program for screening women in remote areas. Following the meetings in Edinburgh that I attended, we were reached out to by the Baylor Foundation in the United States for their particular foundation in Eswatini, Baylor Foundation Eswatini, for assessment as a program, for use in a program to screen women in Eswatini, which is the old Swaziland. It's not a big country, but it was important to us because it meant that a U.S.-funded organization had selected TruScreen as its screening tool. Unfortunately, after we were chosen, not long after, Donald Trump was reelected as the President of the U.S., and one of his first acts was to crash the USAID program.
USAID provides funding for health initiatives in a lot of African countries, including Zimbabwe, and is both a curse and an opportunity for us because a lot of the support and infrastructure you need to go along with the screening program is not just a TruScreen device. A lot of that other support, the co-funding for the Baylor Foundation, is coming from USAID. They're now looking for a co-funding partner. When that's done, we'll be able to start in Eswatini. The opportunity for us exists in Zimbabwe, though, on the Dalton Bioscience HPV DNA test kits product because USAID were funding all of the HPV products purchased in Zimbabwe. We could fill that void now because we will be a lot cheaper than the Roche and Qiagen products they were purchasing. Our strategy for success: public screening programs, PSPs.
This is where you get to screen tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of women in a program rather than hundreds of women in a hospital. They are a key to the rollout of TruScreen globally, into one program, then another program, then another program, which provides revenue generation through the disposables. You don't need a lot of devices for a program. For example, to do 20,000 women this year in Zimbabwe, we'll only need a dozen devices. They're going to buy 16 because they need a training base. Instead of having 300 women being screened in a month on a device, they will screen in one month 2,000 women per device.
The Dalton sales, building on the Indian sales with the HPV sales there, we're also looking at sales of HPV in Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Kuwait, and there are some other countries that build upon that where we're not just saying it's India only. We're taking the Dalton product into other markets because it is a perfect fit for TruScreen where you can use TruScreen as your primary screen. In countries where they want to have triage and not go straight to screen and treat, you can then triage with HPV and have it all done in the one visit because Dalton also has a rapid HPV product that we're entitled to distribute. The ASEAN market, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, it will be slow in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, purely because product registration takes so long in Thailand and Malaysia. We're looking at 15- 18 months.
Indonesia is now taking root in early October. I'll be in Jakarta, meeting key opinion leaders, Ministry of Health officials, and doctors from the Brawijaya Hospital system to continue, I suppose, the ambassadorship of TruScreen and the key opinion leaders in Indonesia in what is the fourth most populous country in the world. The Indian market, I've spoken at length about India, and I won't belabor that. All these build towards cash flow positivity month to month in March of 2026, which I think requires us to sell about another 5,000 disposables per month than what we're currently doing by. Which if we do this in a conservative estimate, we should be month to month cash flow positive. Of course, I've got to achieve what I'm saying I will achieve, but that is the target. There is a step-by-step process to get there, which is coming up.
To enable that success, we've hired a new Business Development Manager, which Tony mentioned, who will have specific focus on the Dalton HPV product and on public screening programs. Strengthening distributor relationships, people like Renovate , Mawar Mitra Medical in Indonesia, Sewai Shangtai in China. In Uzbekistan, we're talking at the moment, the distributor I hope to be able to put in place to support us in Uzbekistan currently distributes Roche, Cogen, Becton, Dickinson. They are the premium importer of medical devices in Uzbekistan. We're looking at the Middle East and how to expand our Middle East distribution, again using Renovate and Sadaf Medical in particular. Evidence-based and international recognition, we've talked about Edinburgh, we've talked about WHO and Unitaid. We're building upon that. That is Shruti's job, our new BDM, to build upon that particular focus.
Marketing communications focus and operational cost effectiveness all help build towards this cash flow positivity that we aim to achieve by March. Our activity globally, I've spoken about what we're doing globally. I won't belabor that. Our growth strategies, again, all of these have been reinforced. Revenue outlook, how are we going to get there? If you look at FY 2025 to F Y 2026, it is a significant growth from NZD 1.7 million-NZD 2.8 million. I have laid out already where that will be achieved, and I've laid out how that will de-risk our focus on China. China continues to grow, and it is growing at the rate that they said they would grow. The others all contribute in, and they may or may not contribute exactly as we have it planned here, but that is the latest forecast I could give you at the moment.
Step by step, China's growth expected to grow about 15%. Zimbabwe, if they do the 20,000 women that they're predicted to grow, that would give us about NZD 400,000 in sales, not NZD 250,000. However, you always have to discount some of the measures that you're promised to by different governing bodies. Southeast Asia, India and Indonesia will form the backbone of our Southeast Asian sales, although India is technically not Southeast Asia, but I have to group it in somewhere. Dalton Bioscience, our sales in India in particular and in other markets are predicted to be at about NZD 200,000 for the year. Ho Chi Minh City Public Health at NZD 150,000. Uzbekistan, our pilot program will commence in late October. I have another meeting next week with Senator Attorney Yesava about that program and with our World Health Organization Representative, Dr. Clara Yadgorova.
That will be to set up the final detail for the conduct of the pilot program, then the assessment, and then the rollout into screening. That's taking place. It was going to be Tashkent based, but it's now been switched to the far west Paracatplex Dan, which is where the old Aral Sea area was and used to be the richest part of Uzbekistan. There's a government focus now to build up activity for health, major health programs inside that part of Uzbekistan. In Mexico, I've got there about NZD 100,000 in expected sales in Mexico. That's organic growth. If we got the IMS program going, that would take off. That's the step-by-step growth of how we get to the NZD 2.8 million sales target. I've gone through everything that's in these slides. I don't want to belabor it. These are available now on our website.
They've been released to the stock exchange, and they've been emailed out to our mailing list. You have access to this same presentation. Who's going to do this? You've met everyone here. Of course, Juliette stands down and leaves a hole in advice for me because Juliette's experience with GE has been very important to me. I'm my second iteration as the CEO, and I miss that, Juliette. I will. I always have the strength of Dexter and his R&D knowledge and technical knowledge in particular, Chris with finance, and Tony with Asian markets. Our tag teaming on roadshows has been, we, I think, had great engagement in Asia. Tony as a geometrist and, of course, working with Guy.
Interesting place for breakfast.
Yeah. I've learned many different key breakfasts in many backstreets in many Asian cities traveling with Tony Ho, Guy Robertson, myself, Dr. Jerry Tan. I will get back to Jerry. Jerry has more time with this product than any person in the world, other than the Chair of our Medical Advisory Committee and our new engaged medical expert in Singapore, Dr. Quek Swee Chong, who were all involved in the original validation of the earliest concept of the TruScreen technology at the turn of the century. It's important to recognize that Jerry is not just a commercial head. He knows more about our clinical trial history and the functioning of the device and the functioning of cervical cancer than most professors of cervical cancer, because he knows how this technology works with the disease state.
Carolina Velasquez, important to recognize here, as a Colombian trained in gynecology, she has the medical and scientific expertise, but she's very important on clinical trials because she has a master's in clinical practice and clinical research. Usheron Araji, our Production Manager of the Marshall Science, etc., manages all of that. That's our team. I'm sorry I took so long. I've tried to skip through it as quick as I can. Thank you for your support. I look forward to all the questions online and from the floor. Thank you.
Thanks, Marty. Thank you, Marty. That's fantastic. Yeah. We are like a pair of ducks swimming in the lake, isn't it? It looks very calm and serene, but pedaling like hell underneath the water. What did I say to you, Marty, during our roadshow across Asia? That we now have to position the company as an Asian-centric company. Yes, it's an Australian and Kiwi technology that we are very proud of. The support that we are receiving now from emerging nations in Asia. During our roadshow in Asia, across Asia, we were pleasantly surprised at how interested the fund managers were that we talked to about TruScreen as a hidden gem. It's interesting that within Australia and New Zealand, we talked to fund managers here as well.
Each one of them tends to say, "Oh, we can't really invest in you because we have a trust deed and a mandate that we can't invest in small companies. You don't have the required liquidity for us to get out. If one of our fund members shot through a redemption notice and we have to sell, we can't sell because you're not liquid." In Asia, it's slightly different. They also have trust deeds. The fund managers tend to be a little bit more flexible because they always say within their portfolio, they have a certain amount of discretion. At the same time, a lot of them describe themselves as small fund managers with $300 million under management. That's small to them.
Most of that $300 million may come from maybe four or five family companies, which allows them to say, "Right, if I have to go outside the mandate, I can actually go directly to the families and present to them and see whether they have an interest." As an example, in Singapore, we met a very savvy fund manager, and he was very open. He said, "No, I can't invest in you guys because you're not liquid enough." Six weeks later, when we did the placement, our local corporate advisor approached them again and said, "Have you talked to your principals?" They said, "Yes, I have." Their principals are three families. As it turned out, it was three siblings. Obviously, it must be a huge inheritance that allowed the three siblings to each run their own investment.
The feedback was one of the siblings is a lady, and she likes it. The sister gave us a tick, and the brother said, "All right, we'll put some money in it." It's quite interesting that the dynamics of raising money in an Asian market is not black and white based on your mandate, but who you talk to and the fact that they are willing to go outside the parameters of the mandate and speak directly to their principals. Surprisingly, we actually get a very positive response. During our tour out of Hong Kong, we were introduced to a foundation. The name sounds very Asian, Karen Leong Foundation. It focused on gynecological diseases for women in Hong Kong. My first reaction was, I don't think they would have the support that will support what we're doing.
Our corporate advisor said, "No, no, please go and talk to them." As it turned out, that foundation was actually a foundation of the financial markets in Hong Kong. It's a very interesting dynamic in that when President Xi Jinping came in, he wanted common prosperity. He wanted everybody to make sure that the prosperity flows down to the lowest denominator in China. Of course, Hong Kong has a lot of expat companies in the financial markets. They all decided we really need to do something for the public good in Hong Kong. One of the participants in the financial market was a lady called Karen Leong, who passed away from cervical cancer. They said, "That's it. We're going to create a foundation and name it after her, focus only on women." Within the financial markets, they raised money through black tie balls and all sorts of very exotic events.
This lady, it was a German lady that ran the foundation, basically said, "I work on a program of what I need in terms of public screening for Hong Kong and Shenzhen. If I'm short, I just pass the hat around and tell them what's your share of contribution." Everybody just wrote the checks and gave it to her. It's quite an interesting dynamic that sometimes you think, "NGO, where do they get the money from?" Unless you go out on the road and dig deeper, you find that there are so many opportunities out there in terms of funding for public health activities. Through them, they also introduced us to a few other NGOs in Africa that's also dealing with raising money for foundations for cervical cancer and other activities. That's how we move the project along. It's very exciting.
Shortly, Marty will be back to Singapore to do a presentation to a whole lot of fund managers from Europe who are arriving in Singapore for the F1. Our corporate advisor has organized an Australian Equity Day where there's about eight Australian life science companies plus New Zealand life science companies presenting to European-based fund managers who are coming down to Singapore for the F1 event. After that, he's traveling to Jakarta. Before I move to the formal part of the meeting, I think it was remiss for me not to thank our team in Sydney for all their contribution to another very long and hard year. I think we only have a small team. To our commercial and technical team in Sydney, thank you very much, guys, for your dedication and resilience.
It's good to see that your efforts have seen a slow but successful turnaround of activities within the company. As the old saying goes, success breeds success. As we spiral up, we're actually getting more successes coming along our way. Now, let me move through to the formal part of the business. You would have to excuse me if I go through, read through all the do's and don'ts and all the procedures. When you arrive and you register for the meeting, you would have received your voting form. If you need additional voting form, please put up your hands and we would organize it for you. For those of you who registered online, there is a button that you're going to click on to get the voting paper. When I ask you to vote, you can click on for, abstain, or against.
Most importantly, you must click submit the vote to ensure that it gets added on to the count of the vote. That is a synopsis of it. Should we never miss anything else? Right. Now, before we move to the formal resolution, I always present the annual report for discussion. It's not a requirement under the New Zealand listing rules or even the New Zealand Corporations Act. I always feel that in the interest of governance, it's always good to table the annual report, saying that our audit partner is sitting right here where questions can be put to him on the conduct of the audit. All of you would have received the annual report by way of a link. If you have any burning questions about the conduct of the audit, now's the time to ask any questions. Do you have any questions?
If there's no other questions, we'll leave it to the general business. Now, we come to resolution. The first resolution is the formal appointment of new auditors. In April, we appointed Hall Chadwick, New Zealand, as our auditor. Even though our year-end is March 31, the appointment of Hall Chadwick was a little bit delayed because of the processes to go through with FMA for change of auditors. They came through a little bit late, but it's all done. The director appointed Hall Chadwick at the time, and we seek shareholders' approval, ratification of that appointment. The proxies count is as shown on the screen. Are there any questions from the floor on the appointment of Hall Chadwick, New Zealand? Guy, any questions from online? No, no, no, no, no, no. No questions.
I will now then put the resolution to the floor or to the meeting anyway, I should say, not just to the floor. Let me find the resolution. We have six resolutions to deal with. That's resolution number one. Right. That Hall Chadwick, New Zealand Limited, is appointed as the company's auditors. I will now ask all of you to mark your vote accordingly and also online to go through the electronic process appropriately. I would just give you guys online maybe 10 seconds-2 0 seconds to do that before I move on to the next resolution. The resolutions will be declared at the end of the meeting, five minutes after the closure of the meeting. We will then draw the collation. Voting will be declared and then lodged with the NZX as the final determination.
I now move to resolution number two, which is I really think shareholders' advocacy group should lobby the government to try to change the need for resolution number two, which is uniquely New Zealand. That's not being, not being. Resolution two is for the shareholders to allow directors to set the audit fees for Hall Chadwick. Are there any questions from the floor? Guy?
No questions.
The proxies for resolution two are as on the board, on the screen. As you can see, it's overwhelmingly supporting the resolution to allow directors to do that. Let me put the resolution to the meeting that the board is authorized to fix the remuneration for Hall Chadwick and New Zealand Limited, the company's auditors. I will ask you to mark your resolution appropriately and also maybe 10 seconds- 20 seconds for the online shareholders to go through the voting. I now move to resolution three, which is for the election of Christine Pairs as a Non-Executive, Independent Non-Executive Director of the company pursuant to listing rule 2.3.1. Christine's CV is attached to the notice of meeting. She has leadership roles, past leadership roles in a number of companies, and is currently Chairman of a few other companies as well, as well as past Director of NZX listed companies.
I would like to ask Christine to say a few words. Yeah.
Thank you, Tony, and the TruScreen board for your nomination. My background as a Chief Executive and as a Director has been in many companies where we have had high growth potential. We've needed to go globally with our products, create distribution networks, navigate regulatory compliance and competitive market environments, and establish those distributor base initially and activate them. Clearly, from the presentation today, the business TruScreen is at that point where this is about realizing the significant growth potential. I hope to be part of that. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Christine. I did receive a question from the New Zealand Shareholders' Association suggesting that there are three directors on the board with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. I don't think I'm rich having a Bachelor of Commerce, but I stopped practicing accountancy many, many years ago. I see myself as a businessman rather than an accountant. Having a financial background does allow me to understand where the profits are coming from. I found it strange that the New Zealand Shareholders' Association even asked that question because your first tertiary qualification doesn't determine your career activity. I mean, if you look at the members of parliament, half of them are a Bachelor of Law. Are you saying that the country is run by a bunch of lawyers? Of course not. They're politicians. They're there for the best interests of the community that they serve.
Similarly, those of us who have a similar bachelor degree doesn't mean that we are all accountants. I did, however, say to the New Zealand Shareholders' Association that we were quite happy to provide a metric of what skill mix that we require in our next annual report. Australia used to request that, but they stopped doing that because they said basically shareholders know exactly the CV of the directors would provide the relevant information for shareholders to decide, not looking at their bachelor degrees and all this sort of stuff. Coming back to what I said earlier before the age when we first started, it's very difficult to have one set of rules to fit all sizes of company. If we are Auckland International Airport, yes, you can have specific silo expertise for specific activities. When you have small companies, it's crossover. Right.
Going forward, we will provide that request. I think we can do that very quickly, isn't it, Guy? It's not onerous to go back and provide what skill set the board needs going forward. As a company develops, skill sets change all the time. At the moment, we need distribution skills. That's why we approached Christine to join the board because of her expertise and experience in dealing with goods and services through the indirect channel. I think Christine also was involved in the FMCG activity if you consider wine as an FMCG. Right. On that basis, are there any questions on the appointment of Christine Pairs as the incoming director of the company? No questions, Guy?
No.
No questions. I will now end the proxies as per the screen. I will now put the resolution to the meeting that Christine Pairs, who was nominated for appointment on the 28th of July 2025, be appointed a director of the company within the provisions of the constitutions of the company. I will ask that shareholders put through their votes. The proxies are as stated. For online shareholders, please don't forget to click submit vote. Resolution four, I have a personal interest in that. I will now pass the chair to Chris Horn.
Okay. Thanks very much, Tony. Resolution four is for the reelection of Tony Ho as a director of the company. In terms of the constitution of the company, Tony is retiring as the director of the company at this annual meeting and, being eligible, has offered himself for reelection. Tony is a Non-Executive Director of the company and an Independent Director and chairs the board and the shareholder of TruScreen Meeting. Tony's CV is in the notice of meeting. Tony's made an outstanding contribution. His independence of thought, his leadership ability, and his ability to really guide the company and steer us, particularly in the Asian markets, has been outstanding. For that reason, the board endorses wholeheartedly the reelection of Tony as a Non-Executive Independent Director. The board considers that Tony qualifies as an Independent Director as defined in the listing rules. Are there any questions?
No.
No questions from me.
No questions.
No questions. Thank you. If there are no questions, I will put the resolution that Tony Ho, who retires in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the company and being eligible for reelection, be elected as a director of the company. Proxies received are as set out on the screen. Please mark your voting cards by ticking for, against, or abstain in the appropriate place to make sure it's a valid vote. I note I'll hand back to Tony.
Thanks. Thanks, Chris. Good proxies want. Right. Now we move to resolution five. As a preamble, resolution five and six, both of them are what we call refreshing resolutions. They refresh the prior issue of shares issued by the director to a service provider in lieu of cash payment. By seeking shareholders' approval, it will restore the company's 15% capital raising headroom. Right. Resolution five, on 7th of March, the company issued 2,316,603 shares to Spark Plus Private Limited, a company in Singapore. In fact, they are our corporate advisors in Singapore. We actually paid them by shares rather than cash to assist us with the roadshow that Marty and I embarked on. It was announced to the NZX on the 10th of March. As I said earlier, we now seek shareholders' ratification so that we can restore the 15% headroom. More information is in the explanatory notes.
Are there any questions?
No.
I will now put the resolution to the meeting. It's quite a long-winded resolution. That the previous issue under NZX listing rule 4.3.1 of 2,316,603 ordinary fully paid shares in the company at an issue price of AUD 0.0259 per share on the 7th of March be hereby approved pursuant to NZX listing rule 4.5.1(c). Okay. I will now ask shareholders to mark their votes accordingly. I move to resolution six. As I said earlier, it's a similar situation. The proxies for resolution six is on the screen. On the 23rd of July, we issued a further 451,576 shares to Spark Plus Private Limited. This was payment for the Australian Equity Day that Martin Dillon will be attending at the end of the month. It's a payment of an invoice in lieu of cash, and it was issued. We get a better deal at AUD 0.017.
At AUD 0.017, but probably a little bit more shares. Once again, by shareholders ratifying the directors' decision to issue the shares, it will restore the 15% headroom for the company. Questions from the floor?
No questions.
Nothing from online shareholders. I will now put the resolution to the meeting. That the previous issue pursuant to NZX listing rule 4.5.1 of 451,376 ordinary shares issued at the price of AUD 0.017 on the 23rd of July be approved and ratified for all purposes under listing rule 4.5.1(c). I will ask shareholders to mark your vote, both here and online. Whilst you're doing that, thanks, Juliette. Juliette has to leave. She has an appointment here. Thanks, Juliette. Right. Now we come to the more exciting part of the meeting. We now have general business, which normally is quite a lively affair. Let's let the questions come forward, Guy. Any questions from the floor?
Yeah.
How much does it cost to manufacture a device?
This commercial is sensitive. I appreciate that. It's not a cheap device, but I can tell you we sell it for how much? We sell it at $4,800 .
Average sale cost is $4,000 because it's a bit larger in China.
Yeah.
Our manufacturing capacity is, what's 23x- 24? 480 and 324, so it's 552 devices a year.
We don't sell.
We're well above capacity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How long does it take to make one device?
We can make about 23 a month. Sorry, we can make about 40. I need to hire an extra person to do that. I've got the equipment to make about 46 a month, but it needs two people to do what's called the analogue front end, which is the optical fiber bundling and polishing that takes the time. That's a 1.6-day process.
There are two places for manufacture, one in China and one in Australia?
are two places that assemble the device. The analog front end, which is the key part, which is everything from here forward, from about here forward, is manufactured in Sydney because it holds the most sensitive of the IP. The PWA stacks inside the handpiece are put together for us by Wavetronics in Sydney as well.
Our device is one of those few devices in the medical world where we can honestly say it's handmade. It's not mass produced, right.
It's a whole lot of unique process that you can't roboticize. We've looked at it. In particular, it's the method of bundling and the method of polishing the fibers because they get to pretty well close to a micron of tolerance. To roboticize that is currently beyond technical scope.
Picture the microphone. Any other questions?
We have an average life length now without calibration of five years, but we have devices in the field that have been there since 2017, still functioning. They're in China. At the moment, we've got devices running eight years. We have other devices that have come back for service and repair in three years. They're at fault, not through aging. The devices that have been running for eight years in China have been running in high-use places like the 301 Military Hospital and Chaoyang Hospital, which are two of the biggest hospitals in Beijing. They're doing over 600 patients a month each. At the moment, I would say we could anticipate, particularly now that we've improved the manufacturing methods, a 10-year lifespan at the outer side and a five-year lifespan at the underside. Current data would suggest that.
Any questions? Guy?
Tony, one question for you and two for Marty. I think the question from the Shareholders' Association you might have covered already. What process does the board adopt to ensure it has appropriate skill sets? What process does the board adopt as performance reviews?
Okay. In terms of the selection process, we comply with the NZX requirement. We call for nominations from the public. When the public nominations arrive, we match that to the skill sets that we require for the new director. We were after a director with skills in distribution, understanding the indirect channel. As it turned out, Christine Pairs was the only nomination, and her skill sets match what we were after. The NZX also required three directors to be on the audit committee and not the Chairman. Her background also fits the bill for being on the audit committee as well. In terms of directors' review or process of reviewing, we do, because we're such a small board, have regular informal discussions and feedback. I talk to directors regularly on areas that I think they should be more proactive in, that they should be more focusing in. Generally.
Tony and directors give you the benefit of their discussions too, so some feedback as well.
It's not the one-way leadership thing. I manage the board on a collaborative basis. We make decisions on a shared responsibility, and everyone is being heard at board level.
Marty, two questions for you. One, how many TruScreen tests do we perform in a year, and how many of those are positive? The second question is Poland's not an area of interest.
TruScreen tests a year sitting at about 200,000 at the moment, 180,000 of those in China. The mix will change this financial year. There'll be 20,000 in Zimbabwe, 5,000 in India, 5,000 in Indonesia. We might get to 220,000 this financial year. Positivity rate is running at about 6.5%, I believe. That's different in every country and different in every screening population. To explain that, if you screen a general population, people randomly off the street, you'll hit at about 6.5%- 6.6%. However, we'll be higher than that in what's called symptomatic population. That's women presenting for screening because they've noticed something wrong, in which case we could be as high as 25%.
For example, when we did our original screening in AIMS in Delhi in 2017, 2019, that's the All-India Institute of Medical Science. That was a symptomatic population in the first round of screening, and that had a positivity rate of around 23%. It depends on who's turning up to be screened, what's the protocol for the screening. It can also be affected by the accuracy of what's the gold standard and how gold that gold standard is. What's the true positivity rate compared to the gold standard, which will vary in every country as well. On a normal population, on an average, about 6.7%- 7%.
You comment on Eastern Europe?
Eastern Europe? Eastern Europe's up there with India for me as a difficult place. It ranks with India for my multiple failures. I'll give you an example. Poland, which showed extreme promise for the company, has fallen off our forecasting now because we cannot convince the Polish government to step away from a pap smear-based screening modality. They haven't even moved towards HPV screening. It's free for every woman in Poland to have a pap smear, but they pay for HPV, they pay for TruScreen, etc. We cannot get them to move away from that system. Yet their system, and apology to anyone who has a Polish background, but their system is conducted very poorly. The accuracy of their pap smear is dreadful, but they cannot walk away from it. Czechoslovakia has the same bias towards pap smear. Sorry, I should say the Czech Republic.
Slovakia is different, but it's too small for us to be operating in. When I look at Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, they too have been disappointing purely because they're so splintered that you don't have the population mass to justify the installation expense for the devices when medical authorities there haven't got a genuine focus on women's health. Eastern Europe's a disappointment. However, that may change. If Russia can stop firing missiles at Ukraine and some embargoes are removed, we have a significant amount of work that's been done in Russia in anticipation of there being a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. That includes getting the re-registration of the device. It includes the entering of TruScreen into the to be a recommended screening modality by the Russian College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. It includes pre-orders for devices in hospitals in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
It includes now that same distributor working on registration in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Success in Eastern Europe will trickle down from Russia, just as Tony mentioned, the influence of Russia into the ex-Soviet states in the stands. Again, that's Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan. That's where the success will come from. I pray every day for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, not just philanthropically, but also commercially.
Are there questions, Chairman? Any further questions from the floor? There's no further questions from the online shareholders. I thank you for your attendance and look forward to an exciting year of great shoots and growth. Yeah. On that basis.
Tony, if there are any further proxy forms on the floor, could you please give them to the gentleman standing behind you?
Are there any more voting forms? I keep forgetting it. All right. Just a reminder, voting will close five minutes after the conclusion of the shareholders' meeting. The results of the votes will be declared and lodged on the NZX this afternoon. Thank you very much. Please join us for tea and coffee.