The Ministry of Health (MOH) is organizing the Saudi Japanese Healthcare Forum on Monday Jumada al-Ola 26th, 1439H. (corresponding to Feb. 12th, 2018), in Riyadh. This Forum comes under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Ministries of Health in both countries as well as with Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry in March 2017. The Forum is designed to update MOH's healthcare professionals on the latest healthcare practices and medical technologies in Japan, including the obligations of doctors, healthcare specialists and medical companies. It also offers an open platform to share insights and views, and to review cutting-edge creations.
The Forum features four key scientific sessions on emergency and disasters management (risks and crises), cardiology, endoscopy and oncology, in addition to diabetes. Through this Forum, the bilateral cooperation covers training healthcare professionals, partnership between both public and private sectors, investment in health, in addition to medical information and research.
It is worth noting that training healthcare professionals through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is one of the most important fields of bilateral cooperation. MOH-JICA cooperation started in 1999 through annual training scholarships. Last year, several MOH's staff were trained on nursing and emergency medicine to capitalize on Japan's expertise.