- Japan-Arab Economic Forum 2024, Aiming Enhancement of Cooperation Partnership among Japan and Arab States held in Tokyo
- The focus of the forum was enhancement of mutual trade through the diversification of economic relationships, innovation collaboration; response for climate change, including green products and waste management; emerging technologies.
- Japan and the Arab countries agreed to expand cooperation for “Resilient Economic Development” and “Sustainable Economic Development”
- The 6th Japan-Arab Economic Forum in one of the Arab countries in 2026.
By: Muhammad Arif, Editor NSN.Asia
Tokyo: the 5th Japan-Arab Economic Forum, aiming enhancement of cooperation partnership among Japan and Arab states was held from July 10-11 in Japanese capital, Tokyo.
The forum was cohosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), and the League of Arab States.
FM Kamikawa, Mr. Tsuji, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Saito, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Mr. Kozuki, State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry attended the meeting from Japan.
The H.E. Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States and economic ministers and others attended the meeting from the Arab countries.
Around 700 participants from a wide range of sectors from Japan and the Arab countries participated in the Forum and concurrently held events, and 10 Arab participants on the Ministerial-level attended the Forum. Through the discussions in the Forum, the two sides concurred on the importance of deepening economic relations, especially in the areas of trade, investment, energy, technology, human resources development, and new challenges such as climate change.
During a session on Public-Private Business and Economic on the 10th July, Minister Saito, Minister Kharabsheh, Mr. Ali, Mr. Miyata and Dr. Hanafi gave their opening remarks. Secretary General Aboul Gheit gave a keynote speech on his expectation for the enhancement of partnership among Japan and Arab states.
Speakers from government and private sector held insightful discussions on a wide range of fields including; enhancement of mutual trade through the diversification of economic relationships and innovation collaboration; response for climate change, including green products and waste management; emerging technologies (communication and AI), and the resilience of supply chain under the three sessions.
Highlighting the themes of business cooperation between Japan and the Arab countries, Minister Kamikawa stated that the concept of the Forum is to create synergy between Japan and the Arab countries and to progress toward prosperity together, and that the aim of the Ministerial Conference is to deepen discussions on directions for new economy and business cooperation between Japan and the Arab countries on the agendas of Japan-Arab “Resilient Economic Development” and “Sustainable Economic Development”.
While speaking on theme “Japan-Arab Resilient Economic Development”, and “Japan-Arab Sustainable Economic Development”, the participants exchanged their views on a wide range of fields including energy security for both supply and demand sides, digital infrastructure and innovation with emerging technology including AI and metaverse, clean energy technologies for the achievement of Net-zero, actions for SDGs and human resource development in energy and digital.
The forum concluded offering directions for the future economic cooperation between Japan and the Arab countries was released after the closing session on the 11th. It was also announced that the two sides decided to hold the 6th Japan-Arab Economic Forum in one of the Arab countries in 2026.
The Japan-Arab Economic Forum has been held with a aim of strengthening economic relations between Japan and the Arab countries through cooperation in a wide range of areas, including trade, investment, energy, science and technology, and human resource development with a large and high-level participation from public and private sector of both Japan and the Arab countries,
The first Forum was held in Tokyo at December 2009, the second in Tunis (Tunisia) at December 2010, the third in Tokyo at December 2013, and the fourth in Casablanca (Morocco) at May 2016.
