Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz yesterday received visiting Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma, who conveyed to him a message from Japanese Prime Minister Jun Idji Kwaizimi. Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector-General Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz also met with the visiting Japanese Minister and his accompanying delegation, as did Minister of Commerce Osama Faqih, with whom he discussed Japanese imports of Saudi non-oil products, Japanese investment in production projects, Japanese technology transfer into the Kingdom, training opportunities for Saudis, and expansion of technical cooperation between the two countries.

Today, the Japanese Minister met with Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Prince Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki Al-Saud, and with Minister of Planning Khalid Al-Gosaibi, who is co-chairman of the Saudi-Japanese Joint Commission. Prince Abdullah praised the encouragement of Japanese companies to invest in the Kingdom, noting that there are many aspects of cooperation in the development of economic relations between the two countries.
In 1999, the volume of trade between Saudi Arabia and Japan reached SR 38.5 billion [U.S. $ 8.8 billion], almost three-quarters of which were Saudi exports. There are 37 joint Saudi-Japanese investment projects with a total capital investment of SR 18.3 billion [$ 4.9 billion], with the Kingdom contributing nearly 53 percent of this capital.

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