RIYADH, 11 March — Japan, as part of its drive to capture a niche market in the Kingdom, will be dispatching in the next two months specialized missions to identify trade and joint venture possibilities in the fields of productivity as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
This was disclosed at a joint press conference held by Yoshitaka Nakamura, director general of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), and Yasuharu Tanaka, in-charge of Japan Desk at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority. The first of its kind at GIA, the Japan Desk acts as a bridge of cooperation between Japanese and Saudi companies in promoting investment opportunities in the Kingdom.
It was also announced that a Japanese water mission consisting of over 30 delegates has arrived on a four-day visit to the Kingdom. The team will visit Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam. The objective is to introduce water-related Japanese technology in the Kingdom and offer Japanese cooperation in the treatment and re-use of waste water as well as conservation of ground water.
The delegation will organize seminars in the three cities, besides holding talks at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs as well as the Riyadh Water and Sewage Authority. One of the members of the trade mission, Environmental Assessment Center Co., will be looking for a Saudi representative to promote its cross-wave method for underground water conservation technology.
Nakamura said that on March 26-27 Dr. Seiichi Fujita will deliver a lecture in Riyadh on the Kanban production system designed to boost the employees’ productivity and give competitive edge to the organization.
Referring to the SMEs mission scheduled for the second quarter of this year, Tanaka said the objective is to offer Japanese SMEs’ ‘niche technology’ to its Saudi counterparts and also explain how they can overcome the problem of capital injection. The Japanese official paid tributes to GIA for its efforts in expediting the issue of licenses within a month of submitting the application. The system has been highly appreciated by Japanese companies, he observed.
According to the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, more than 80 percent of the nearly 32,000 companies registered with RCCI are SMEs. One of the major problems is inadequate financial support to these organizations. To this end, RCCI has been cooperating with the Saudi Credit Bank for credit facilities ranging from SR100,000 to SR500,000 for a variety of small enterprises. The loan will be repayable in easy monthly installments.
A survey conducted by the directorate of Enterprises and Investments Development Center at the RCCI revealed that 43 percent of their members were engaged in trading followed by those in the construction industry (19 percent), industry and services (15 percent each) and agriculture (eight percent). Their problems, including lack of professionalism at the marketing and management levels, will be addressed during the upcoming meeting between the two organizations.
