RIYADH – Hitachi Group Ltd seeks further business expansion in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. At a “Hitachi Social Innovation Forum” held recently in Riyadh, the Group, through exhibits and seminars jointly held with MEED, endeavored to deepen ties with local companies and customers and increase business in the region, by introducing Hitachi's joint venture activities with local companies in industrial fields, along with Hitachi's advanced, cutting-edge technologies in fields including industrial and IT solutions, energy, mobility, healthcare, and water treatment. The region is expected to demonstrate dramatic growth in the future, particularly given the positioning of Arab countries, which have the richest reserves of natural resources in the world, and countries such as the Republic of Iraq and Libya, where reconstruction demand is seen to be increasing. The average GDP growth rate in these regions is expected to be between 3 percent and 4 percent per year from 2013 to 2015. Saudi Arabia in particular has continued to demonstrate stable economic growth based on income from natural resources, and is investing efforts in the growth of industries other than crude oil. In its ninth, five-year plan, covering the years from 2010 to 2014, the Saudi Arabian government laid out new policies involving large-scale investments in social infrastructures, focusing mainly on the implementation and maintenance of power supply networks and facilities in the water and telecommunications fields. Furthermore, in order to strengthen the electric power infrastructure, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, an organization established in 2010 under the direct guidance of the King of Saudi Arabia, has set a goal of establishing 16 nuclear reactors (18 GW) and introducing power generating facilities using solar and wind power and other forms of renewable energy on a scale of 54 GW by the year 2032. The Saudi Arabian market is expected to continue growing, given projections for the expansion of the development business in response to urbanization, as well as for increased individual consumption resulting from population growth. Hitachi is currently implementing policies aimed at the global rollout of the Social Innovation Business as part of its 2015 Mid-term Management Plan, and has set a goal of increasing the ratio of overseas sales, which was at 41 percent in FY2012, to more than 50 percent by FY2015. In the Middle East and North African regions, Hitachi is rolling out business with a focus on industrial equipment, large home appliances, power systems, and construction machinery, with a business scale of approximately 95 billion yen in FY 2012. Hitachi has been steadily building its business base in Saudi Arabia since it first began doing business in this country in the 1960s, securing orders for the shipment of general industrial devices and generators. Later, in 1978, Hitachi opened an office in Riyadh in order to further strengthen sales activities. The Hitachi Group currently has a total of five companies in Saudi Arabia with approximately 300 employees, including two joint ventures with local companies. In June 2011, Hitachi completed a comprehensive business agreement with Saudi Aramco regarding the supply and maintenance of compressors for petroleum and natural gas plants. Then in June 2012, it established “Hitachi Saihati Engineering Services Co., Ltd.,” a joint venture with a local company that provides services related to compressors and other industrial equipment. In November of the same year, Hitachi completed an agreement with the King Abdulaziz University regarding joint research targeting water quality monitoring technologies for seawater desalinization facilities. In this way, the Hitachi Group has been building strong collaborations with local partners in Saudi Arabia. In December 2012, Hitachi received a batch order from Saudi Aramco for Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) in utility facilities for the Jazan Refinery and Marine Terminal Project, in Jazan. – SG
