The 2025 Healthcare Odyssey

Welcome to the first edition of Law Update for 2025. As we begin this exciting year, we are pleased to turn our attention to one of the most dynamic sectors in the UAE and the broader GCC region – healthcare. Over the past several years, the region has seen unprecedented growth in this sector, driven by legislative advancements, technological innovations, and the increasing focus on sustainability and AI. As such, healthcare is set to be one of the most important sectors in the coming decade.

In this issue, we explore key themes that are significantly shaping the future of healthcare in the UAE, such as recent changes in foreign ownership laws. These reforms present a major opportunity for foreign investors, opening up new avenues for international collaborations and improving the overall healthcare infrastructure. The changes in ownership laws are an important milestone, and we provide an analysis of what this means for the industry and the various players involved.

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Law Firm
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Law Update
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September 2019
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Vision Saudi Arabia

Vision Saudi Arabia

KSA

We are very pleased to share with you the following special Law Update on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (‘KSA’).

Last year proved to be another year of continuing success and expansion for Al Tamimi & Company in the Kingdom, with a number of new staff joining our Saudi offices, including: new Head of KSA, Babul Parikh; General Manager, Mike Wakefield; and HR Specialist, Hanine Saab. In addition, we welcomed the promotion of three new partners, Emad Salameh – Litigation and Legislative Drafting; Bandar Al Hamidani – Corporate Commercial and Sports & Events Management; and Dr. Ahmed Basrawi – Litigation and Arbitration.

We repeated our success of 2017 by being named KSA Law Firm of the Year 2018 in The Oath Middle East Legal Awards. Other significant achievements include:

a highly successful seminar which we co-hosted in Tokyo with the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) and the well-known Japanese law firm Nishimura & Asahi; and
the launch of the 3rd edition of our ‘Doing Business in Saudi Arabia’ book (now published in Arabic, English, Chinese and Japanese).

We were honoured to be appointed to the prestigious legal panels of the National Centre for Privatization and the Red Sea Development Company as well as the international panel of law firms of the Ministry of Finance.

The Saudi Arabian Government’s Vision 2030 reform agenda continues to gather momentum, with frequent announcements regarding social and legislative reforms, new large scale giga-projects, high value tenders and world class events which are all helping to maintain an increasingly busy news cycle.

The last 12 months have also seen the introduction of a number of new laws which have had a significant impact on the regulatory landscape and which include:

Competition Law;
Government Tenders and Procurement Law;
E-Commerce Law; and
Maritime Law.

In addition, socially significant steps have occurred in line with the Government’s Vision 2030 agenda. For example, over the last 12 months we have seen a number of ‘firsts’ as highlighted below:

women winning the right to drive;
the re-opening of cinemas to the public;
the issue of tourist visas for foreigners;
tourist visas being issued to foreigners for special events;
Saudi women over the age of 21 may now travel abroad without the need for the permission of their guardian; and
a new law providing for 24 hour trading licences available from 1 January
next year.

The following feature on Saudi Arabia touches on a number of current key issues.

We hope you will find our Focus KSA interesting and informative. For further information about any of the highlighted topics, or anything else KSA related, please do not hesitate to contact any of our KSA Al Tamimi & Company team directly.