JEDDAH, 3 April — King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center will organize Saudi Bio 2002-Jeddah as part of the ongoing Saudi Technology Week at Jeddah Hilton for three days from Saturday.
“The international event will feature renowned speakers and visitors from the world over,” Dr. Sultan Abdullah Bahabri, chief executive officer of KFSH, told the Saudi Technology Forum on the concluding day of the two-day event at the hotel yesterday.
“This is the first international conference of its kind in the Middle East and the Arab world about biotechnology and its applications,” Bahabri said during his presentation on e-health.
He said that the conference would cover a comprehensive range of biotechnology applications, including health care, industry, environment and agriculture, ethics and policy, training and education, and finance and investments.
“The biotechnology sector is the fastest growing industry in the world. It is responsible for about one-third of all new jobs recently created in the United States and Europe,” he said, adding that many countries were making biotechnology as their strategic sector for future development and progress in the advanced world.
“Such a decision is considered essential for the national security of any country,” he added.
He said the 21st century belonged to biotechnology and outlined the rapidly expanding telemedicine as part of the ongoing development in technology locally, regionally and internationally and emphasized the revolutionary role of e-health the modern Internet age.
He referred to a website dedicated to health in the Gulf that was open to doctors the world over.
“The website has not only become prominent but popular among the medical fraternity, especially in the Arab world,” he said, and underscored his hospital’s role and initiative in the matter.
The concluding day also featured presentations by overseas experts on “Possible winners and losers in the global game,” “Who regulates the global market,” “Strategy as synchronization,” “Ten lessons from the future,” and a panel discussion on “Priorities for action in the coming virtual world.”
Panelists included Hazem Malhas, chief executive officer, Aregon Ltd., Dr. Jeffrey Sampler, professor of information management and strategy, London Business School, and Anton Morland Musgrave, a partner in Future World.
John Stopford, professor of international business at London Business School, was the moderator.
Delegates said that the two-day interactive deliberations were both informative and educational. Topics selected represented the theme of the forum: “Realities in a virtual world: the future for business in a digital economy.”
The forum, to become an annual event, was organized by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Jeddah Marketing Board, which aims to promote Jeddah as a world-class center of business and culture. Amr A. Dabbagh, chairman of the board, said the forum was a new event aimed at providing a platform for the development of a long-term agenda for the application and impact of new technologies throughout the Middle East.
