Arab Health: an investment opportunity

The four-day Arab Health Exhibition and Congress had recorded a 5 per cent increase year-on-year in exhibitor numbers as of Thursday with 4,400 expected from 70 countries.

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Arab Health organisers are expecting visitor numbers to hit 120,000 this week as exhibitors tap into Asian and African markets via the event.

The four-day Arab Health Exhibition and Congress, which kicks off tomorrow in Dubai, had recorded a 5 per cent increase year-on-year in exhibitor numbers as of Thursday with 4,400 expected from 70 countries – up from the 4,187 that attended last year from 64 countries.

Organisers said the growth is partly due to exhibitors considering Dubai a hub through which to access the wider region.

“The success of Arab Health has always mirrored the healthcare investment across the region and even if there is a slowdown in healthcare spending in the UAE, there is still investment in other countries such as in Africa and Asia,” said Dave Panther, a spokesman for Informa Life Sciences, which organises the event. “[This year] we saw an increased demand from existing companies who want to grow their space and new companies trying to come into the region.”

Dubai-based KEF Holdings, for example, will showcase its healthcare project Meitra Hospital in India, which is expected to open this quarter. Nearly 80 per cent of the 200-bed hospital infrastructure has been manufactured off-site at KEF’s Krishnagiri facility in India. At Arab Health, the visitors will get a virtual walk through the facility, including the treatment rooms and patient rooms, with KEF hoping to tap African and Asian markets at the trade fair.

“With health care being an essential sector, and one that is growing in prominence with the Dubai’s Health Strategy, we expect that infrastructure development in this space will continue to witness steady growth [in the next few years],” said Faizal Kottikollon, the founder and chairman of KEF Holdings.

Meanwhile, GE’s regional office expects to attract private healthcare providers for its digital technologies, including healthcare analytics and radiology services.

“We see the healthcare sector witnessing robust growth this year, led by the increased allocation for social development in the budget,” said Maher Abouzeid, the president and chief executive of GE Healthcare’s eastern growth markets.

And Dubai-based Al Fajer Emergency Medical Services (Al Fajer EMS) is showcasing its hyperbaric chamber, that can treat up to 12 patients simultaneously. The chambers treat wounds, among other medical conditions.

“Continual investment is needed into medical facilities and devices to treat patients locally to ensure that the UAE continues to offer medical treatment that is available in the US [and] Europe,” said Mohammed Al Beloushi, chief executive of Al Fajer EMS.

Arab Health is the second largest healthcare exhibition and congress in the world, after Germany’s annual Medica, and the largest in the Middle East.

While about 101,439 visitors attended Arab Health last year, up from 93,925 in 2015, to accommodate the 120,000 expected this week, the organisers have made the laboratory exhibition Medlab – held a week after Arab Health – a separate event for the first time. This year, 700 exhibitors from 38 countries have signed up for Medlab, an increase of about 20 per cent year-on-year.

At Arab Health, China has contributed the largest number of exhibitors for the past five years followed by Germany, the UK and the US.

“The exhibition in Dubai has attendance from across the globe and we get to meet large parent companies as well as smaller firms, which you do not find at similar events in the US, for instance,” said Sanjib Pal, the owner of teleradiology firm Rad365, based in the US and India. “This would be my eighth year at Arab Health as a visitor and the size of the trade fair has increased dramatically over the past three years.”

The UAE Federal Government has allocated Dh4.2 billion in spending for the healthcare and community welfare sector this year, compared to Dh3.8 billion for health care alone last year.

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