Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Day One of the Global Health Exhibition (GHE) opened with powerful endorsements from the world’s top healthcare leaders, as Saudi Arabia’s transformation under Vision 2030 was hailed as a benchmark for innovation, investment and delivery in global health.

International CEOs and global health leaders praised the Kingdom’s bold approach to healthcare reform and commented on the actualisation of ambition into tangible results.

Record-breaking Investment and Groundbreaking Announcements

Opening the Exhibition, His Excellency Fahad bin Abdulrahman Aljalajel, Minister of Health for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, announced the signing of health sector deals worth USD $33 billion.

“From the Global Health Forum, I am pleased to announce that we will witness the signing of agreements and investments whose value exceeds 124 billion Saudi riyals. Let us continue together on this path, the path of innovation, partnership, and prevention,” said His Excellency the Minister of Health, Fahad bin Abdulrahman Aljalajel.

This record-breaking total more than doubles the announcements made during the previous edition and shows the confidence and speed of growth in the Kingdom’s health sector.

Global Leaders Praise Saudi Ambition and Call for Global Action

In a series of standout moments from the Global Health Leaders Panel, global CEOs applauded Saudi Arabia’s achievements and urged others to match its level of ambition and delivery.

“One of the things that has been most impressive about this morning is not the story that’s been told, because lots of people can tell that story, but actually what is being done,” said Sir Jonathan Symonds, Chair of GSK.

“I see very, very few countries in the world that are taking such an ambitious approach as they are here. So, I really think what we've heard this morning is one of the most ambitious portrayals of the future of health systems, and I wish we could find Health Ministers in Europe who could talk as eloquently as His Excellency has done this morning.”

Tom Polen, CEO and President of global health technology giant Becton Dickinson said “There’s not a single country on the planet that I can think of that is more forward leaning and wanting to use technology to transform healthcare than Saudi Arabia. That’s why I’m so excited about the partnership.”

“Number one it is great to see Saudi Arabia leading the way Middle East and I think more broadly, Vision 2030 has many tremendous merits around many different angles. One, being how do we build robust healthcare systems so that we can do these clinical studies in the Kingdom and those clinical studies can then build a path to look at what a biotech vision looks like here”, said Joseph Romanelli, President of Human Health International, MSD International GmbH.

Roy Jakobs, CEO Royal Philips said, “The power of big data combined with AI is going to revolutionize healthcare and that is something where I see the Kingdom leading forward in.”

Global Health Exhibition continues with another 3 days of high-level dialogues from across the health sector. The event is the world’s fastest growing health platform, bringing together over 500 international speakers, 2,000 exhibitors and over 160,000 visitors in 2025.