JEDDAH: As many as 1,157 Saudi students have graduated from the Saudi-Japan Automobile High Institute in Jeddah in the past six years and another 400 are learning plastic-related technologies at the Higher Institute for Plastic Fabrication and Electronics at the Saudi Electronics and Home Appliances Institute in Riyadh.
“These institutes, together with Japanese experts and financial support, are playing a significant role in the Kingdom’s human resource development,” Japanese Consul General Toshimitsu Ishigure said in an address at a celebration marking Japan’s National Day on Monday night.
A. Tayeb, director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs branch in Makkah, was chief guest at the event, which was attended by a large number of officials, diplomats and businessmen. Also marking the day were the birthday of Japan’s emperor and the 20th anniversary of the emperor’s accession to the throne.
Ishigure said around 250 Saudis were studying at various universities in Japan under the Kingdom’s scholarship programs and 150 students were expected to be sent to Japan next year. There has also been a number of positive developments in trade and investment between the two countries. The volume of Saudi exports to Japan reached $50 billion and the Kingdom’s imports from Japan totaled $7.8 billion in 2008, which indicates that Japan maintained its status as one of the top leading trade partners of Saudi Arabia last year. As for investment, he added, Japanese high profile investments continued across the Kingdom this year.
“Japan maintained its position as one of the largest foreign investors in the Kingdom,” he said, adding that the efforts of the Saudi-Japanese Industrial Task Force, established in 2007 to increase Japanese investments, has brought about three new investment projects in the Kingdom.
The most remarkable investment project, he added, is the commencement of the Petro-Rabigh project, which has been jointly undertaken by Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco with a total investment of $9.8 billion. The project was inaugurated in November. A significant event of the year was the visit, for the first time, of three training vessels of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense forces to the Jeddah Islamic Port in June.
