Osaka to host Dubai-Osaka Economic Partnership Forum in December

The latest preparations for the forum were unfolded during the press conference, which was attended by Qassim Sultan, Director General of Dubai Municipality, AbdulRahman Al Mutaiwee, Director General of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tadaharu Chichii, Consul General of Japan in Dubai and Salma Hareb, Chief Executive Officer, Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority. Eng. Mattar Al Tayer, Deputy Director General of Dubai Municipality, AbdulSalam Al Madani, Managing Director of Index Group, Mikihiro Arakawa, consul at the Japanese consulate and many other Japanese and Emirati dignitaries were also present on the occasion.

Sultan praised the wise directives of the leadership of Dubai Government and the care taken by the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, through which Dubai Municipality could establish good relationship with different cities of the world and sign a number of twinning cities agreement with them. He said His Highness's directives have always helped enhancing relations with many world cities.

Praising the close relationship between Dubai and Osaka and the twinning cities agreement between the two cities, Sultan said both the cities have effectively benefited from the agreement resulting in further strengthening of relationship.

Sultan said the Dubai-Osaka Economic Partnership Forum is one of the fruits of co-operation between the Prefecture of Osaka and Dubai. He hoped to achieve success in the efforts to realize all the anticipated economic objectives and further wished that both the cities produce the fruits of success to serve for the betterment of both countries and enhancing the scope of co-operation in various fields.

Sultan said Dubai-Osaka Economic Partnership Forum comes as the new opportunity to enhance the relationship, the base of which was established by the agreement. He said it has helped in achieving further blooming of relationships by exchanging visits between the officials of both the cities.

Sultan said the Municipality will exert maximum efforts for the success of this important economic event, which is expected to increase trade relations between the two countries. "We will do whatever possible in our capacity for achieving betterment to our city and thereby enhance its service at different levels," he said.

Al Mutaiwee thanked the Municipality and Sultan for hosting the press conference and also thanked the Dubai Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing for their constant participation in organizing economic forums abroad along with Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He also thanked the organizations that sponsor the Forum, which will strengthen and enhance the relationship between the UAE and Japan.

He said the trade between Japan and the UAE is showing an upward trend as Japan has become the third largest partner with the country as far as the quantity of trade exchange is concerned. "The quantity of trade between the two countries in the non-oil sector has reached a total of Dhs13.4 billion and 66% of this is between Dubai and Japan," said Al Mutaiwee.

He said there are about 100 Japanese countries in Dubai and a good number of new companies are trying to shift their regional base to Dubai due to the facilities offered by the city and the trade opportunities available here.

"This forum is the venue through which we will take our bilateral trade and investment to a new horizon," said Hareb. She said that UAE and Japan share a long history and recalled that Japan was one of the first countries with which the UAE established diplomatic relations in 1971.

"UAE was Japan's 22nd largest export market in the world in 2004. Japanese export to the UAE grew by 27% in 2004 reaching US$4.6 billion (Dhs16.882 billion) due to strong product demand in a buoyant UAE economy while imports rose by more than 28% to US$18.3 billion (Dhs67.16 billion). Japan mainly exports to the UAE electrical machinery and transport equipment; while it imports from the UAE oil and natural gas. The UAE, as a re-export hub, has been a major market for Japanese textiles," said Hareb.

She said the UAE has over 150 Japanese companies with a UAE presence, 90 of which are operating at Jebel Ali Free Zone adding that these Japanese companies based in JAFZA comprise several Fortune 500 companies.

Dubai had signed the twinning cities agreement with the Prefecture of Osaka in October 2002. The agreement enhances the firm relations and provides further links for Dubai to other cities of the world. It is also aimed at benefiting from the experiences and expertise of world cities in various fields. With the support and efforts of the Director General during the last five years Dubai Municipality has succeeded in establishing a network of international relationship by signing twinning and co-operation agreements with 12 cities of the world and this axis of network will not be complete unless by entering the world cities through Asian continent.