Business & Money | Monday 21 March, 2016 6:24 am |

Around SR104 billion has been allocated by the government for health and SR41 billion will be pumped into the sector in the coming five years, said an official on the opening ceremony of the Saudi International Healthcare Forum (SIHF) here on Sunday.

The three-day event, which is being attended by more than 300 national and international health experts, was inaugurated by Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed. 
Being held with the support of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, the forum is discussing latest technologies and inventions in the health sector and ways to reduce cost of treatment.
The forum has been organized by XS Conferences & Exhibitions with the partnership of C3 International Summit and Huntsman Cancer Foundation. 
During the inauguration ceremony, Prince Mishaal emphasized on the need to care for the health of citizens and residents and provide them with top class services. He also toured the exhibition, which has showcased latest technology, equipment and various means of modern techniques in the field of health care. 
Revealing the government’s focus on the health sector and its investment plan for the next five years, Mazen bin Mohammed Batterjee, vice chairman of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, said that on average a Saudi spends SR3,000 on health annually. 
He said that almost 18 specialized American health companies are coming to the Kingdom to discuss the development and improvement of the health sector, which will be a great opportunity of partnership between the private and public sectors. 
Training and rehabilitation, latest technology and solutions impacting the global health care field and establishment of partnership between the public and private sectors are among the issues taken up at the forum.
Adel Abdul Shakoor, president of XS Conferences and Exhibitions, said the main focus of the forum is economic issues in the health sector and review of the latest technologies in the medical and health sector internationally.
Ransel N. Potter, founder of C3 International Summit, said the main agenda of the forum is knowledge transfer.