JEDDAH, 23 August 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah received Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Nakagawa Shoichi here yesterday. Bilateral economic ties were in focus at the meeting. Shoichi said that he was greatly impressed by the Kingdom’s rapid progress and conveyed to him his country’s interest in forging further cooperation in its all-round development.
The minister also had discussion with Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunein at the Hilton Hotel on Monday night. Both discussed the prospects of enhancing cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and many other fields. Many officials and businessmen including Tarek A. Taher, president and CEO of Aal Taher Group, were present at the dinner meeting hosted by the minister in honor of Shoichi and the accompanying delegation.
The Japanese minister earlier visited the Saudi-Japanese Automobile Higher Institute. The institute is one of the joint projects implemented by Saudi Arabia and Japan for technology transfer and training youth in the technology and maintenance of Japanese cars.
Institute Executive Director Salim Al-Asmari welcomed the minister and conducted the minister on a tour of the institute’s classes, laboratories, maintenance workshops and other facilities. “Both the Kingdom and Japan have been cooperating in many different fields of activity, notably in the transfer of technology and training, and such cooperation could be further extended,” Shoichi said. He added that he was impressed to note that similar projects would be implemented in many other fields.
