Dubai: The 40th edition of the Arab Health Exhibition and Congress opens today (January 26) in Dubai and is expected to be attended by 120,000 people. The four-day event (January 26-29), which is touted as the largest in the Middle East and the second largest in the world, will focus on innovative health-care solutions aided by smart technology and will also unveil some of the most ambitious health-care projects coming up this year in the UAE, GCC and the Middle East.

About 4,000 exhibitors will showcase their latest products and services, with many companies represented in the 40 country pavilions, including Bahrain, Indonesia and Thailand for the first time.

The increase of life expectancy, rise in the incidence of non-communicable diseases, shortage of trained health-care workers and insurance penetration has become the primary concern for government and private sector entities alike.

UAE health-care expenditure reached an estimated Dh16.8 billion in 2013, and rose by 16 per cent through 2014. Surging health-care costs have led government agencies in the region to create an environment to strengthen public-private sector partnerships over the past years and this presents a variety of opportunities for healthcare organisations around the globe.

Marwan Abedin, CEO, Dubai Healthcare City, said: “The benefits of innovation are apparent in the health-care sector; every year we see the introduction of new technologies that improve services provided to patients and the health-care infrastructure as a whole. Over the past years, our participation at Arab Health has demonstrated that the exhibition and congress are an ideal platform for stakeholder engagement and insight sharing, facilitating the flow of critical knowledge and materialising opportunities for global partnerships to achieve our goal of a world-class health-care sector.”

Simon Page, Managing Director, Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the organisers of Arab Health, said: “The Arab Health Exhibition has become the key regional and international platform for the health-care industry and the increasing numbers of exhibitors, conference speakers and attending delegates serves as a testament to the increasing influence of this showcase to a worldwide audience.”

This year, major delegations have come from China with 579 participating companies (10 per cent increase from 2014), Germany with 461 companies (15 per cent increase from last year), as well as a regional representation from the UAE, with more than 261 companies exhibiting (20 per cent increase). Running in parallel to the Arab Health Exhibition is the Arab Health Congress which will cover topics including big data, robotic surgery, paediatrics, cardiology and future surgery centre and, for the first time, the Congress will host a dedicated Gulf hypertension conference. More than 11,000 delegates are expected to attend the 18 health-care conferences over the next four days.