DUBAI - The four-day Arab Health Congress in Dubai, which started Monday, attracted more than 2,800 exhibiting companies from 60 countries or regions. Once again, the 36-year-old medical fair is dominated by Chinese firms.

"This year, major delegations come from China with over 400 participating companies, Germany with over 350 companies and United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, United Kingdom and Italy, all with well over 150 companies exhibiting," said Simon Page, divisional director of the Life Sciences Division of organizers IIR Middle East.

"Large representations also come from France, India and South Korea," he added, while joining Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and the UAE's finance minister, on a tour of the show.

For Ms Zhou, founder of a biomedicine company based in central China's Wuhan city, it was her first time to participate in the Arab Health trade show.

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"We want to enter all regions worldwide. The Arab Health Congress provides a good opportunity to attract clients in the Middle East," said Ms Zhou.

Demonstrating her products in a space about 15 square meters, Ms Zhou was confident to convince doctors and clinics of her products "because we produce high quality at a reasonable price."

Dubai and its 2.5 million people struggles with typical "wealth symptoms" such as obesity, diabetes or heart diseases.

According to Dr Ashraf Kamel, founder and managing director of the German Medical Center, there are some 400,000 diabetic patients in the UAE at risk of nerve pain.

Dr Kamel, who is of Egyptian origin and studied medicine in Germany, was the first doctor who founded a clinic in the free zone Dubai Healthcare City.

"Dubai has a state-of-the-art infrastructure and this is why patients from a region comprising over 2 billion people come to the UAE in order to get a health treatment or even to have an operation here," said Dr Kamel, whose 20-strong team have so far treated 15,000 patients from all over the world.