Plans are under way to organise a ‘UAE Week’ in Japan during the first quarter of 2018, participated by officials from the public and private sectors, it was revealed today.

The announcement came during a meeting between Abdullah Al Saleh, the UAE Ministry of Economy’s Undersecretary for Foreign Trade and Industry, and Yasushi Akahoshi, president of the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro), in Dubai.

The meeting discussed various means for further developing economic and trade cooperation between the UAE and Japan.

Al Saleh called on Japan to be the partner country in the next session of the SME Conference, a specialised conference organised by the Ministry of Economy which gathers officials, experts, academics and representatives of various organizations and authorities supporting entrepreneurship along with private sector entities to discuss major issues and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and exchange opinions and ideas on global solutions and best practices.

During the meeting, the two sides expressed their satisfaction with the advanced level of economic and trade relations and their mutual keenness to develop effective mechanisms for cooperation, the exchange of experiences, and facilitating investment in a number of vital economic fields, especially in innovation, R&D, and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) incubators sectors.

The meeting was also attended by Mohammed Al Yousfi, National Program Director for SMEs, senior ministry advisors, and senior officials of Jetro.

Al Saleh praised the decision of the Japanese Government to exempt UAE nationals from entry visas, noting that this will positively impact their bilateral relations and provide more opportunities for UAE investors to enhance their presence in the Japanese market.

He further reviewed several prospects for manufacturing partnerships particularly in the petrochemical and aluminum fields, as well as in renewable energy, transport and logistics, and other areas where the two sides enjoy a number of preferential advantages.

This, he said, enables promising partnerships for their countries as well as additional potential investments in other promising markets in Central Asia and Africa.

Al Saleh emphasised the importance of developing joint platforms for enhancing linkages between their private sectors, pointing out that the UAE has issued directives towards organising a number of visits and trade missions to Tokyo to promote the former’s diverse investment environment.
It was mentioned that the volume of non-oil trade between the UAE and Japan exceeded $14.5 billion in 2016, while the volume of Japanese direct investments in the country amounted to around $4 billion.

For his part, Akahoshi highlighted the importance of maintaining strong economic and trade relations with the UAE which Japan considers as its most important trading partner in the region.
Akahoshi added that Japan is keen to develop frameworks of cooperation in various vital fields and further diversify UAE-Japan foreign trade to support joint efforts to pursue wider horizons and help achieve the development goals of their friendly countries as well as heighten their levels of trade and investment cooperation.

The Jetro president expressed Japan's keenness to facilitate more economic and trade missions from the UAE to Tokyo to constantly review major investment opportunities and to strengthen relations between their business communities. – TradeArabia News Service