Omani health minister headlines American Middle East Institute forum

The American Middle East Institute convened in Pittsburgh for its eighth annual Health & Technology Forum with special segments on Doing Business in the Middle East and a featured presentation from Oman’s Minister of Health.

This year’s conference featured presenters from Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Oman, and concluded with keynote remarks by CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria’s keynote was entitled “Arc of Crisis: Reality and Hope in the Middle East.”

This year’s featured presenter at the conference’s daytime session was Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Obaid Al-Saidi, Oman’s Minister of Health. Al-Saidi has been a leading advocate for health reform and modernization in the sultanate. That’s on top of being a major voice on the development of medical cities in the Gulf States region.

American Middle East Institute President Simin Curtis said the choice of Al-Saidi was a timely one.

“Our friends in the Gulf region, and particularly the Sultanate of Oman, are defining what 21st Century care will look like,” Curtis said. “They have a unique ledger of challenges, but have been adept at meeting every one of them with characteristic innovation.”

Curtis said the Health & Technology Forum served to show that even amid dramatic change in the Middle East, business and creativity marches on.