Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Mr. Hiroshi Kajiyama, Minister of Economic, Trade, and Industry of Japan, have discussed ways to strengthen the UAE-Japan economic development partnership.
They also discussed ways to boost their mutual trade and investments and measures to make it easier for imports and exports to travel between their countries.
During the virtual meeting, the sides agreed to form a joint team charged with putting together a UAE-Japanese business council to improve the partnership between the Emirati and Japanese business communities. It will also help to create opportunities for companies in both countries, generate added value from joint investments, provide information and services to investors, and encouraging communication between relevant government authorities.
The two sides also discussed measures to strengthen their bilateral ties and expand their economic cooperation, emphasizing the need of growing the scope of cooperative projects and easing the exchange of talent and expertise between their countries.
Dr. Al Zeyoudi stated that positive economic indexes reflect the UAE-Japan collaboration, with Japanese direct investments in the UAE totaling $4.01 billion since the start of 2020, up 22.6 percent from 2015.
He noted that Japan is placed tenth in the world in terms of countries investing in the UAE and eighth in terms of non-oil trade with transactions worth $8.95 billion in the first ten months of 2020.
“We will continue advancing our bilateral cooperation in target areas and sectors that support the economy of the future, especially technology, electronics, advanced industries, medical research, space sciences, automation, artificial intelligence, and entrepreneurship. The UAE-Japanese business council will play a key role in this regard,” Dr. Al Zeyoudi added.
Mr. Kajiyama emphasized his country’s desire to strengthen ties with the UAE, especially in the energy sector, and praised the UAE’s flexible legislative infrastructure and efforts to boost the economy. He also stressed that his country is willing to take part in Expo 2020 Dubai and learn from the UAE’s experiences.
