TOKYO – The 14th meeting of the Saudi Japanese Business Council (SJBC) on Tuesday discussed ways on how to take advantage of the advanced Japanese technologies in furthering the Kingdom's competitiveness in various economic and business sectors. The meeting explored the prospect of transferring these technologies mainly in the fields of training, investment, transport and smart communications systems, besides extending Japanese cooperation in the Kingdom's renewable energy sectors. More than 200 prominent Saudi and Japanese businessmen, as well as executives and officials of major companies and organizations, attended the meeting co-chaired by Tareq Al-Qahtani, president of the Saudi side, and Hiroshi Saito, president of the Japanese side. Addressing the business leaders, Midori Matsushima, Japanese state minister of economy, trade and industry, said that her country is keen to further promote trade and investment partnership with the Kingdom. “The volume of bilateral trade exchange reached $56 billion, and this shows the strong partnership and the efforts to further develop it by the concerned agencies, including SJBC,” she said. In his speech, Abdullatif Al-Othman, governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), invited Japanese businessmen and investors to take advantage of the most appropriate investment environment in the Kingdom, especially in diversifying sources of income and transfer of technology. “Saudi Arabia makes up about 40 percent of the foreign investments flowing into the Arab region, and the volume of Kingdom's foreign direct investment (FDI) reached about $199 billion,” he said.
Al-Qahtani underscored the need for increasing private sector's contributions in the bilateral trade partnership and diversifying vital sectors in order to meet the growing requirements of tapping immense manpower, material and technical capabilities of both the countries. Saito said the meeting would contribute to open new avenues of bilateral cooperation. Abdullah Al-Mobti, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers, said Japan is the Kingdom's second biggest trade partner, and the strong commercial and economic relations date back to nearly six decades. On the sidelines of Crown Prince Salman's visit, “Invest in Saudi Arabia” exhibition started in Tokyo on Tuesday. Tokyo is the first foreign destination of the exhibition that SAGIA launched in Riyadh on Jan. 18. The Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with SJBC, is hosting a meeting of the representatives of Saudi and Japanese companies to introduce in front of the Japanese side the ample investment opportunities that the Kingdom has, as well as incentives and facilities for investors.
The volume of Japanese investments in the Kingdom reached SR56 billion, of which 86 percent in industrial sector, mainly in petroleum and chemical industries, 6.4 percent in water and electricity sector and 4.9 percent in the building construction sector.
