Japan-Jafza trade reached Dh9.6 billion in 2012

Japan-Jafza bilateral trade is estimated to have hit Dh9.6 billion in 2012, posting a growth of over 28 per cent in the last four years.

Bilateral trade between the world’s third largest economy and Jafza, the Middle East region’s trade and logistics hub, however, still has huge potential for growth, said Jafza officials during a recent five-day road show in Japan.

The Jafza road show visited Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, three major business hubs in Japan. The road show included one-to-one meetings with leading Japanese businesses and business seminars in all the three cities. All three seminars were organized with the support of the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ.

Adil Al Zarooni, Senior Vice President, Jafza Sales, speaking at the business seminars, highlighted growing opportunities for Japanese investors and businesses in the region.

He said, "The Middle East region’s increasing focus on developing economic infrastructure offers huge potential for Japanese majors in the infrastructure development sector. The growing prosperity and rapid increase in the demand for consumer goods, on the other hand, opens huge opportunities for Japanese companies in the electronics, FMCG and other sectors. Jafza is currently home to 114 leading Japanese companies including such major names as Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sony, Panasonic, Nissan. We would like to see more and more Japanese companies come to Jafza to take advantage of the growth opportunities in the region. The Jafza road show is all about this."

Khalid Al Marzooqi, Regional Manager - AsiaPacific, Jafza Commercial Sales, emphasised Jafza’s strategic importance as the region’s trade and logistics hub.

Commenting on the road show, Al Marzooqi said, "The road show succeeded in creating awareness about the enormous business opportunities for Japanese investors in the Middle East and the strategic importance of Jafza as a hub to serve the region in the most efficient and cost effective manner. We have already received a number of queries from Japanese businesses who want to base their operations in Jafza to explore opportunities in the GCC, West Asia and African countries."

During the road show and seminars, Jafza also highlighted the free zone’s incubator concept, which is designed to attract and support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) seeking to explore opportunities in the region from the free zone, at a very nominal cost.

The incubator facility is a collaborative initiative between Jafza and the interested country to support SMEs. Under the scheme, Jafza allots facilities to the government agency for the incubation centre, who in turn allocate space in the centre to interested investors from their respective countries.

Jafza wants to extend incubator support to Japanese SMEs and is in talks with various government agencies and private organisations to set-up and run a Japanese incubation centre in Jafza.

The Jafza team was led by Adil Al Zarooni and included Khalid Al Marzooqi, Gota Akai, Japan market representative in Jafza, EOK, the Jafza agent in Japan and representatives of Bridgestone, Chori Trading and Brothers International, who are all based in Jafza.
 



 

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