A 37-member trade delegation attended the Saudi Arabia-Japan Business Forum opened by Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Riyadh.

Minister Motegi, who was also due to meet top Saudi officials including Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, talked about the history of Japanese-Saudi economic relations and underlined the growing ties in trade and human resources development.

"Our bilateral relationship has been deep and diversified. In fact, it's strengthening further. We depend on the Kingdom for energy supplies and other products," he said.

Since 2007, Minister Motegi said, eight Japanese companies had invested in Saudi Arabia.

On the occasion, Hitachi signed a new joint venture agreement with Halla Juffali, WJCO executive partner, to manufacture high voltage gas insulation switches. WJCO is a Juffali Group company.

He said some Saudi firms such as SABIC and Saudi Aramco had set up offices in Japan to also cash in on the growing economy, which is one of the world's biggest.

It will also be a good idea for Saudi businessmen to invest in Japan, the meeting was told.

Minister Motegi also said that Japan has cooperated with the Kingdom in the training of more than 3,000 Saudi youth who had graduated from three vocational training institutes.

Abdulrahman Al Zamil, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC), also addressed the participants in the forum on behalf of local industry captains present on the occasion.

They included Khaled Al-Aboodi, ICD CEO; Ahmed Al Hakbani, secretary general of Saudi Export Development Authority (SEDA); Abdullah S. Al-Mobty, former CSC chairman; Fahad Al-Rabiah, former CSC vice chairman; and Tariq A. H. Al Qahtani, co-chairman of the Saudi-Japan Business Council and A. H. Qahtani Group chairman; and Saud A. Alessa, board chairman of Alessa Industries.

Al-Zamil noted the success gained by Japanese businessmen in collaboration with Saudi partners as well as other potential areas in which the two countries could also cooperate, such as technology transfer, hi-tech maintenance and training.

He said Saudi students were also studying in various universities in Japan and expressed the hope that the Kingdom will utilize their skills when they return.

Some of them are studying under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program.

More than 100 Japanese businessmen and officials of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) from Tokyo, Dubai and Saudi Arabia attended the forum, and Ministry of Trade and Industry (METI).

Hideki Sho, JETRO director general in Riyadh, said he was happy regarding the event "which was well-attended." "The number of attendees was beyond our expectations and we could not have asked for more," he said.

Also present were Satoshi Miyamoto, president of JETRO, which has 74 branches across the world. Keiji Hattori, executive director at JETTRO Dubai and advisor to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in Japan; Yuji Satoh, senior coordinator at the Saudi Electronics and Home Appliances Institute (SEHA) Project Team of the Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME); Koji Muto, representative of the Japan Water Desk in Jeddah; among others.