An Editorial Roundtable with Miryem Oukas and Sunita Khatri, chaired by Oscar Wendel
When two of the most influential platforms connecting Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council decide to join forces, it signals more than a partnership: it marks a shift in how strategic healthcare dialogue is being shaped between France and the Arab world. That was the backdrop to a recent MedEdge MEA editorial roundtable chaired by Oscar Wendel, Chairman of Global Stratalogues, bringing together Miryem Oukas, Head of Communication and Marketing at Business France leading the Vision Golfe Summit, and Sunita Khatri, Show Director of the Global Health Exhibition(GHE). The conversation yielded three landmark announcements: Global Health Exhibition confirmed as a partner in Vision Golfe’s healthcare panel, Business France welcomed as a partner at Global Health Exhibition to host a roundtable with French companies, and the official launch of Global Health Stratalogues, a dedicated media platform developed in collaboration with MedEdge MEA
Vision Golfe: Four Years of France-GCC Momentum
For Miryem Oukas, Vision Golfe is more than an annual summit. It is the embodiment of a strategic conviction that France and the Gulf Cooperation Council need a dedicated, high-level platform where public and private stakeholders can engage meaningfully. “Vision Golfe is the flagship France-GCC summit initiated four years ago to strengthen commercial and bilateral relations between France and the Gulf countries,” she explained.
The summit was born from a precise observation made in the aftermath of Expo 2020 and the global economic reconfiguration that followed the pandemic. Despite robust individual relationships between France and various GCC nations, there was no single, unified forum that could bring together the full spectrum of decision-makers from both sides. Vision Golfe was designed to fill that gap.
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Now in its fourth edition, taking place in Paris on June 18–19, the summit has built a strong tradition of convening senior ministers and government leaders from across the GCC alongside France’s most senior economic and trade officials, consistently including the French Minister of Economy and the Minister of Foreign Trade. Each year, one GCC country is the guest of honour, lending the event a rotating focus that allows each nation’s priorities and opportunities to take center stage. Previous editions have welcomed ministers responsible for energy, mineral resources, and healthcare, including the Minister of Health of Bahrain.
Despite its diplomatic gravitas, Miryem is careful to frame Vision Golfe as fundamentally a business event. “Although the event takes place under the umbrella of the French Ministry of Economy and carries a diplomatic dimension, Vision Golfe is fundamentally a business-focused summit designed to facilitate partnerships, investment, and long-term cooperation between France and the GCC.”
Healthcare: A Strategic Pillar, Now Strengthened
Healthcare has already featured prominently in past editions of Vision Golfe. Last year, the summit welcomed Her Excellency Nouf Alnumair, Secretary General of Health Policies from Saudi Arabia, alongside the Minister of Health from Bahrain, a testament to the region’s deepening investment in health as a strategic priority. This year, the healthcare dimension takes on even greater significance with the formal participation of Global Health Exhibition in the summit’s dedicated healthcare panel.
Miryem outlined the diversity of healthcare ambitions across the GCC: the UAE has positioned itself as a hub for medical tourism and genomics, Qatar has built its identity around sports health, while Saudi Arabia is making landmark investments in genomics and pharmaceutical manufacturing. France, meanwhile, brings world-class expertise across all these domains.
“At Business France, we work extensively with SMEs and specialised healthcare companies that are active across the GCC,” Miryem noted. “In addition to major pharmaceutical groups, there are many French companies operating in medical technology, healthcare services, training, and hospital systems.”
Global Health Exhibition: Where Strategy Meets Scale
For Sunita Khatri, the Global Health Exhibition has long transcended the model of a traditional trade show. “Today, it is a global convergence platform bringing together policymakers, innovators, investors, healthcare providers, and government stakeholders,” she said. “It has become a place where major strategic decisions are made.”
The numbers substantiate that claim. Last year, approximately USD 35 billion worth of deals, partnerships, and memorandums of understanding were announced at the exhibition, spanning investments in hospital infrastructure, healthcare technology localisation, and strategic projects aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambitions.
This year, the exhibition is expanding its scope to include new sectors such as dental care, orthopedics, rehabilitation, aesthetics, and dermatology, while intensifying its focus on curated investor programs and targeted government engagement. The event operates in close collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Health, ensuring that its agenda directly serves the Kingdom’s evolving healthcare priorities.
The announcement that Business France will partner with Global Health Exhibition to host a dedicated roundtable with French companies marks a significant step in structured France-Saudi healthcare engagement, creating a focused discussion within the exhibition for French industry players to engage with Saudi decision-makers and explore market opportunities.
The Importance of Physical Presence in Saudi Arabia
A recurring theme in the roundtable was the critical importance of relationship-building in the Saudi market. Both Miryem and Sunita were emphatic: international companies that approach Saudi Arabia through remote channels risk missing the point entirely.
“Business culture in Saudi Arabia is relationship-driven,” Sunita emphasised. “Many international companies initially assume they can enter the market through emails or online meetings, but in reality, face-to-face engagement is essential.” Miryem echoed this advice from the French perspective: “We are increasingly advising French companies that if they want to succeed in Saudi Arabia, they must invest in being physically present in the market and actively participate in local events and trade platforms.”
Vision Golfe’s Paris location also plays a strategic role in this respect, offering GCC nations a neutral platform where French companies can engage across the entire region in a single forum, gaining a clearer understanding of the different ambitions and strategies that distinguish each Gulf state.
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Global Health Stratalogues: A New Media Voice for Healthcare
The third major announcement from the roundtable was the launch of Global Health Stratalogues, a strategic media initiative developed in collaboration with MedEdge MEA to amplify high-impact healthcare conversations connecting the Gulf region with the global healthcare ecosystem.
Oscar Wendel revealed that more than 30 podcast episodes have already been recorded, with an expanding pipeline featuring exhibitors, sponsors, healthcare leaders, policymakers, and innovators associated with the Global Health Exhibition ecosystem. The platform will produce conversations across multiple formats and geographies; online, at the Atlantum Alliance villa in Dubai, and live from the exhibition floor in Riyadh, creating an immersive media layer that captures the ideas, partnerships, and strategies shaping the future of healthcare across the region.
The collaboration between Global Health Stratalogues and MedEdge MEA combines event access, editorial depth, and regional media reach to establish a powerful new platform for healthcare dialogue between Europe, the Gulf, and emerging global markets.
A Convergence of Purpose
What emerged most clearly from the roundtable was a shared conviction among all three participants: that the relationship between France and the Gulf in healthcare is not transactional, but strategic and long-term, and built on genuine complementarity. Vision Golfe provides the diplomatic and business forum. Global Health Exhibition provides the scale and the deal-making environment. Global Health Stratalogues provides the media platform to amplify and sustain the conversations.
Together, they represent a coherent architecture for France–GCC healthcare engagement, and one that is built to last.
Vision Golfe Summit takes place on June 18–19 in Paris. Global Health Exhibition is held annually in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
