oiling the wheels of trade
abu dhabi — The UAE and Japan have signed an Investment Protection Treaty to diversify the strategic relationship between the two countries and boost investments, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
Abe, who is on a third visit to the UAE capital, was addressing the UAE-Japan business forum, which was attended by top business leaders of Japanese companies.
“On this visit, we are accompanied by 27 companies representing Japan with a delegation of top business leaders,” Abe said.
“Over the past 5 years since I last visited Abu Dhabi, our bilateral relations have made dramatic progress to a relationship that has been called a strategic relationship. The Japanese government will provide further support by the signing of the investment treaty today.”
Abe first visited the UAE in 2007 and then in 2013. He arrived in Abu Dhabi as the first leg of his Middle East tour that will also cover Jordan and Palestine.
Praising the bilateral relations between the two countries in the energy sector, the Japanese premier said, “Japan and the UAE are also keen to develop a people-to-people dialogue.”
In February, Inpex Corporation received a 10 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi’s offshore
Lower Zakum oilfield for 40 years. It has also received a 25year extension on its 40 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi’s Satah and Umm Al Dalkh oilfeilds.
“Abu Dhabi is an extremely important region for us and accounts for half of our net production,” said Toshiaki Kitamura, Inpex’s CEO and chairman. The UAE is the second biggest supplier of oil to Japan, and also its most important trading partner in the Middle East.
Addressing the forum, Sultan bin Saeed al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said the volume of nonoil trade exchange between the two countries reached Dh55.05 billion in 2017, marking a 8.4 per cent growth from 2016.
Both countries recorded a total trade volume of Dh102.8 billion in 2017, with Japan’s exports accounting for Dh26.42 billion. “Japan is the sixth most important trade partner of the UAE, the fourth biggest exporter to the UAE and among the top 15 most important importers from the UAE globally,” said the minister.
Japanese investments in the UAE stood at Dh14.3 billion, he added. “The cooperation between the 2 countries has contributed to deepening the partnership in a number of traditional sectors of interest such as energy, industry, investment, tourism, aviation and others,” said Al Mansouri.
“That means there are a lot of opportunities and possibilities to develop our fields of economic cooperation.”