Saudi Arabia and the UAE will continue to drive GE Healthcare's growth in the Middle East as the Arab world’s largest economies further develop their health care sectors, a senior executive has said.
Oil-rich Kuwait and Iraq are among the other regional markets that have contributed to the company's high single- to low double-digit business growth over the past years, Rob Walton, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, told The National.
The company plans to maintain the pace of growth in the regional markets as it prepares to be spun off as an independent entity.
“Obviously, the UAE is a very big market for us, with a significant number of healthcare players and government institutions,” said Mr Walton, who took over the reins of the $4 billion business last year.
“Saudi Arabia is also [an] extremely important part of the region and one of the bigger growth markets.”
The pace of growth varies from year to year and market to market, which is very “characteristic” of the broader Middle East, Africa and Turkey region.
“It depends on which market is driving growth. Maybe Saudi one year and maybe the UAE next,” he said.
The faster economic growth registered by the Middle East and the hydrocarbon-rich GCC bloc, in particular, has helped fuel growth for GE Healthcare over the past years.
Prospects have brightened up further, with regional governments significantly boosting investment in the development of healthcare infrastructure. They are also encouraging the private sector to share the load in boosting the number of healthcare centres.
Saudi Arabia plans to invest 250 billion Saudi riyals ($66.67bn) in healthcare infrastructure and improve private sector participation to 65 per cent, from the current 40 per cent, by the end of this decade as part of its Vision 2030 development plan, the UAE’s Mashreq Bank and global research consultancy Frost & Sullivan said in their GCC healthcare sector report.
The UAE, the second-largest GCC economy, spends about 3.5 per cent of its gross domestic product on health care, with about 70 per cent of it from public spending and only 30 per cent from the private sector.
The government's healthcare budget has been increasing year-on-year and has grown at a compound rate of 7 per cent from 2015, the report said.
The flurry of activity at the Arab Health trade show in Dubai last week reflects a "strong sense of optimism" from many of GE Healthcare's customers and partners, who are bullish about growth opportunities across the region, Mr Walton said.
Kuwait and Iraq are also focus areas for GE Healthcare.
“We tend to have more orientation around the bigger markets … but we obviously try to be present in a broad range of markets,” Mr Walton said.
The broad range of markets in the region tend to grow at varying speed, “but, on average, it balances out in a nice, steady and consistent growth rate”, he said.
Even the high single-digit “type of growth rate” for a market over the years is good rate of expansion, he said.
Last November, General Electric announced that it would split into three separate companies, breaking up the conglomerate into standalone businesses, with its health unit being spun off in early 2023.
GE is combining its renewable energy, power equipment and digital businesses into a separate unit that will then be spun off in early 2024. The remaining company will consist of GE Aviation, the company’s engine-manufacturing operation, it said at the time.
Growth remains a major focus for GE Healthcare. The Middle East and Africa are a “strong engine” for the business and Mr Walton says he plans to continue to expand the company’s business.
“What we hope with becoming a stand-alone company is that it will give us more flexibility,” he said.
As a pure-play healthcare company, the business will have “more focus in terms of where to make investment and to expand”, Mr Walton said.
“It gives more focus and control over our capital allocation and that should help us to fuel growth at an elevated rate.”
Obviously, the UAE is a very big market for us, with a significant number of healthcare players and government institutions
Rob Walton,
president and chief executive of GE Healthcare in the Emea region
GE Heathcare’s business Europe, Middle East and Africa has grown in the mid-single digit range historically.
Beyond the Middle East, Mr Walton said he sees Russia and central Asian markets as “high-growth" areas where GE Healthcare can expand its market share.
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
South Africa's T20 squad
Duminy (c), Behardien, Dala, De Villiers, Hendricks, Jonker, Klaasen (wkt), Miller, Morris, Paterson, Phangiso, Phehlukwayo, Shamsi, Smuts.
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
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Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Levante v Real Mallorca (12am)
Leganes v Barcelona (4pm)
Real Betis v Valencia (7pm)
Granada v Atletico Madrid (9.30pm)
Sunday
Real Madrid v Real Sociedad (12am)
Espanyol v Getafe (3pm)
Osasuna v Athletic Bilbao (5pm)
Eibar v Alaves (7pm)
Villarreal v Celta Vigo (9.30pm)
Monday
Real Valladolid v Sevilla (12am)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
