The Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Chambers, Dr. Khaled Hanafi, met with the Japanese Ambassador to Cairo, Oka Hiroshi, where they discussed ways to enhance the reality of Arab-Japanese economic cooperation and Egyptian-Japanese economic relations, based on the role played by businessmen in Japan, Egypt, and Arab countries.
The Secretary-General of the Union noted that "Egypt is considered a focal point in the framework of strengthening Arab-Japanese relations in four pivotal areas." He pointed out that "the first field, which is new in the context of developing relations, is related to tourism investment so that tourist areas and parks based on technology tourism are built and can be linked to the new Egyptian Museum, which enables them to provide different and new tourism services."
He continued: "As for the second field, it is related to building an Egyptian-Japanese alliance to enter the Arab reconstruction countries, by benefiting from Japanese technology on the one hand, and on the other hand, benefiting from the human expertise and competencies that Egypt possesses and which can deal with the Arab markets."
In the third field, Dr. Khaled Hanafi pointed out the “importance of Arab countries contributing to financing projects that are being implemented in Egypt or are planned to be established in Egypt, through the huge investment funds that many Arab countries own, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in this field, Japan will be a strategic partner, which will encourage the strengthening of Arab-Japanese relations and Egyptian-Japanese relations.”
In parallel, the Secretary-General of the Federation considered that "the Federation of Arab Chambers is the true representative of the Arab private sector," stressing "the depth of relations and cooperation between the Arab world and Japan, given that the volume of trade exchange between Arab countries and this friendly country reaches about 114 billion dollars annually." He pointed out, "Japan is the third largest trading partner of a number of Arab countries and is also classified among the most important investing countries in the Arab region, and the Arab world receives the lion's share of Japan's imports of oil and natural gas."
He said: “In light of this reality and these good numbers, we hope that relations will develop into a strategic alliance based not only on traditional commercial activity, i.e. import and export, but also on opening the way for huge investments in the field of technology, as Japan is a leading country in this field. In addition to other promising sectors, especially in the fields of trade, investment, energy, human resources development, and cooperation in facing new challenges such as climate change.”
The Secretary-General of the Union noted that "the challenges facing the world's economies today require us all to work together and show solidarity in order to find innovative solutions that contribute to achieving sustainable economic growth, creating new job opportunities for young people, and improving the standard of living of nations. In this context, the Arab and Japanese private sectors represent a fundamental pillar for the development of our economies and a major driver of innovation and progress.”
For his part, Japanese Ambassador Oka Hiroshi expressed his hope that Japan and Arab countries would work together to take measures based on each other's strengths to overcome challenges and expand economic growth. He pointed out the need to urgently address global issues such as climate change in light of emerging innovative technologies such as digitization and artificial intelligence, which have a major impact on society.
Source (Union of Arab Chambers)
