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IDC To Explore Future Of Saudi Digital Economy At CIO Summit

The event will take place at the Fairmont Riyadh on September 13-14 and bring together IT and telecom leaders, digital pioneers, and industry thought leaders.

Published

3 years ago

August 15, 2023

Joanna Melki

idc to explore future of saudi digital economy at cio summit

Spurred by an influx of foreign investment and a $7 trillion development plan for Saudi Arabia’s giga projects, ICT spending in the Kingdom is set to top $34.5 billion this year. The government sector will be the country’s largest IT spender in 2023, with the budget for AI, IoT, cybersecurity, and data analytics exceeding $574 million.

These issues will sit at the heart of this year’s IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit, taking place at the Fairmont Riyadh on September 13-14. Under the theme of “Enabling the Digital Economy’s Leaders”, the event will bring together IT and telecom leaders, digital pioneers, regulators, and industry thought leaders. A panel of expert speakers will discuss the current state of the Saudi digital economy, assessing its impact on citizens, customers, and employees while outlining best practices and strategies to drive future success.

“To harness the full potential and widespread benefits of the digital economy, governments and businesses must implement strategies to measure and cultivate it,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “Creating regulatory environments and nurturing talent will be critical to success. Today, technology plays an ever-increasing role in enabling, measuring, and reporting on sustainability initiatives and diversity and inclusion drives, with government and business leaders prioritizing these issues on their digital agendas”.

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IDC chief research officer, Meredith Whalen, will open the summit with a keynote titled “Strategies for the CIO and Enterprise Innovation”, where she will highlight IDC’s latest research on the move toward industry ecosystem innovation and tech decentralization.

“CIOs are no longer just technology leaders,” says Whalen. “They are strategic partners who have a critical role to play in driving enterprise-wide growth, and it is important that they fully understand what needs to be done now and in the future to create an environment for long-term sustainable innovation. The IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit is the perfect place for CIOs to learn from their peers, network with industry leaders, and get the insights they need to succeed in the digital age”.

News

A Three-Clinic Network Bets Dubai Is Ready For Longevity Medicine

Longevium has enlisted nearly 100 clinicians and created an AI platform in a bid to sell biological-age tracking as a medicine, not a wellness service.

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2026

Dana Saadeh

a three-clinic network bets dubai is ready for longevity medicine

Dubai has been busily creating the scaffolding for a longevity industry, including a dedicated regulatory authority and a health market deep enough to sustain it. Now the clinics are arriving.

Longevium, a longevity clinic network, has opened three locations across the city: a flagship at Triple Seven Mall on Jumeirah 3, and branches in Jumeirah Lake Towers and Jumeirah Village Circle. Together they house a multidisciplinary team of nearly 100 physicians and specialists offering what the company bills as “a measurable medical system for longevity”.

longevity dubai clinic launch

The pitch is that longevity medicine should look less like a wellness menu and more like continuous clinical care. Each patient’s biological age assessment, laboratory results, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic markers, and lifestyle data feed into a single profile, with a proprietary AI platform helping physicians track progress and adjust protocols against the patient’s own biomarkers.

“Healthy aging must be approached clinically through diagnostics, biomarkers, physician supervision, longitudinal tracking, and protocols tailored to the individual,” said Dr. Ksenia Butova, Longevium’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to help patients understand their health trajectory before disease develops, and then actively change that trajectory”.

The treatment list spans peptide-based protocols, exosome therapies, stem cell approaches, GLP-1 metabolic optimization, hormone balance programs, cardiovascular prevention, and regenerative aesthetics — a model built for the entrepreneurs, executives, and international patients the clinic says want measurable results rather than generic wellness. A signature offering, Longevity Day, compresses biomarker testing, ultrasound and vascular imaging, specialist consultations, IV therapy, and a personalized optimization roadmap into a single three-hour visit.

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“Here, longevity, biotechnology, AI, prevention, and regenerative medicine are converging into a single ecosystem,” said Butova. “This is why Longevium was built in Dubai, and why we believe the UAE can become a global reference point for longevity medicine”.

The emirate established the Dubai Longevity Authority in 2026 to oversee its longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, and the Dubai Health Authority reported insured beneficiaries exceeding 4.9 million in 2025, up around 6.5%, with insurance claims reaching approximately 49.6 million, up around 13.5%.