Japan seeks more Saudi investment

(MENAFN- Arab News) RIYADH: Japan ranked 9th globally in terms of competitiveness in tourism according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) seeks stronger partnership with Saudi Arabia. In his first interview with the local media the new Japanese ambassador to Riyadh highlighted the growth in Saudi-Japanese strategic relations in various sectors.

The Arabist envoy Norihiro Okuda who is posted here for the second time told Arab News that apparently Riyadh has changed a lot. The capital is much bigger today and plays a major role in the international community.
As a member of the G-20 Saudi Arabia exerts tremendous effort in the international economy and trade. As a major country in the Gulf region the oil-rich country is very important for Japan. The two nations have been working together with international partners to stabilize the region.

The following is the context of the interview:

Q: You were here before in various capacities and now as ambassador. How do you see the progress in Saudi Arabia between these two assignments?
A: Yes I was here in Riyadh 25 years ago as a young political counselor when the first Gulf war broke out in 1990. During that period Iraq started invading Kuwait in August 1990 and in response Saudi Arabia and other coalition forces started striking back against Iraq in January 1991. At that time Japan could not send our military force out of country to join the coalition forces. What we decided to do was to help friendly countries through funds under the umbrella of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) so that we could make a financial contribution to the coalition forces. My job then was to assist the ambassador of Japan to set up the fund through consultation with the GCC secretary. Recently Saudi Arabia has started to take initiatives in this part of the world for the stable political and security situation in this Gulf region. I am quite excited about the change that Saudi Arabia has gone through over the past 25 years. I am much excited about being here at this very important time for Saudi Arabia.

Q: How do you see the growth potential in the bilateral ties between your country and Saudi Arabia?
A: Saudi Arabia has been always the biggest supplier of crude oil to Japan and this position has remained the same. We have started to cooperate not only in the trade investment but also in the political affairs. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman paid a visit to Japan last year when he was then the crown prince. Both leaders made a joint statement to promote comprehensive partnership and work together in security and other fields. This year happened to be the 60th anniversary of the formation of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Q: What are the most important sectors Japan is focusing on in terms of its relations with Saudi Arabia?
A: Japan wants to work together with our Saudi friends to promote diversification of industries and development of human resources. Many Japanese companies are operating here and have been exerting tremendous efforts to provide Saudi counterparts with technical expertise and technical training and so on.

Q: Your country has been very active in promoting education and cultural relations. Can you tell me something about this?
A: Saudi Arabia has started sending its youngsters to many countries to give them excellent education. And we are quite honored that Japan was chosen as one of those countries. At this moment there are about 600 Saudi students in Japan. We have very high expectations for those young Saudis studying in Japan to become a strong bridge of friendship between the two nations.

Q: Saudi Arabia is committed to provide world-class training to its youngsters to meet the country's job needs. What is Japan doing in this regard?
A: In fact Japan International Cooperation Agencies (JICA) has been working here for more than 40 years during which JICA provided opportunities of training to over 2000 Saudi public servants. We have three specialized training institutions across Saudi Arabia two in Riyadh and one in Jeddah where they are providing professional technical training to Saudi citizens. Saudi Japanese Automobile High Institute (SJAHI) in Jeddah trains those youngsters to become automobile engineers. Second the Higher Institute for Plastic Fabrication (HIPF) is in Riyadh for the petrochemical industry. The third is Saudi Electronics & Home Appliances Institute (SEHAI) where we train Saudi youngsters to become professional technicians who can deal with electronic home appliances. There are 2242 Saudi graduates of automobile 930 in plastic fabrication and 335 in home appliances. Those activities are appreciated by relevant authorities in the country.

Q: About Saudi investment in your country can you mention some figures related to trade exchange?
A: We are in need of foreign investments as this country does but so far Saudi investment in Japan is on a small scale. In the past Saudi Aramco purchased 15 percent share of Showa Shell company. SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) opened its office in Tokyo. Abdul Latif Jameel (Toyota) started operating in Tokyo in the form of a branch office. These are the examples that I can refer to and the government of Japan is trying to promote foreign investment in Japan and hope Saudi Arabia will pay more attention to investment opportunities that Japan is offering. For example Japan is in the process of lowering corporate tax to less than 20 percent. Because of the depreciation of yen against the dollar what you buy in Japan is very cheap. The Japanese government has been trying to work harder to create welcoming environment for the investors. The statistics we have in 2013 shows that the total trade volume between two counties both ways was $57.4 billion and the exports from Saudi Arabia to Japan stood at $48 billion whereas we export to Saudi Arabia $9.4 billion. This means Saudi Arabia sells more to Japan than Japan sells to Saudi Arabia.

Q: Do you have any joint projects in Saudi Arabia and what is the status?
A: Behind this sort of imbalance in the field of trade we have large investments in Saudi Arabia that create a lot of commercial interests for Japanese companies. They are involved in major mega infrastructure projects including a railways system between the north of Saudi Arabia and the eastern coast of the country which is almost completed. We also have a lot of Japanese companies involved in desalination plant constructions and petrochemical plants.

Q: Do you have any plan to attract more Saudi tourists to your country?
A: We have been doing our utmost to attract foreign tourists. Although compared to Saudi Arabia Japan is relatively a small country in terms of land. We are country of islands where you can enjoy climate with different culture. We are known to be a very safe country with a lot of historic sites and natural attractions and we have been trying our best to attract foreign tourists. Our plan is to increase the number of foreign tourists to more than 20 million people by the year 2020 when Tokyo Olympics will be held in Japan. We are now trying to facilitate foreigners' travel by setting up English and other languages' websites information centers and restaurants where halal food is available for the Muslim tourists.
We know Muslims are very concerned about halal food when they are in non-Muslim countries. Years ago we started to address this issue and we have been doing well in this regard. We hope Saudi friends will pay more attention to Japan as a tourist destination and I am sure they will enjoy their stay in Japan. Although there are only 12000 Muslims in Japan mosques are located all over the country. Halal food is also available everywhere. People-to-people contact will be promoted through tourism as it is a very important tool to promote relations. For that we have to pay more attention to the needs of Muslim tourists.