Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Iraq are the three priority markets for the Japan Cooperation Centre for the Middle East (JCCME), as the semi-governmental body looks to continue its work of encouraging investment in the region in order to secure energy supplies for the Asian nation.

“About 20 per cent of Japan’s crude oil comes from Abu Dhabi and about 25-30 per cent comes from Saudi Arabia, so those two countries are very important to us,” says Akio Nakanishi, managing director of JCCME. “Our ultimate purpose is to secure energy supply in Japan and so we should support Middle Eastern countries in their industrialisation and diversification efforts.”

JCCME was established in 1973, the year of the first oil crisis, to facilitate good relations with the Middle East and ensure the supply of energy to Japan.

“We try to bring Japanese manufacturers’ interest to the Middle East through seminars and so on,” says Nakanishi. “Japanese manufacturers normally give their priority to investments in China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia or India. They see the Middle East as too far.”

To ensure the focus on those core markets, JCCME set up the Japan Saudi Arabia Industrial Cooperation Taskforce in 2007, to promote the kingdom as an investment opportunity and provide information on the support and subsidies available there. Since then, six Japanese firms have set up operations in the kingdom.

These include Isuzu Motors, which in December 2012, opened the Isuzu Motors Saudi Arabia vehicle manufacturing plant in Damman. The company plans to build 600 trucks in its first year, starting with the production of medium-duty trucks. This will later be extended to heavy- and light-duty trucks. Production is expected to reach 25,000 trucks a year in the future, with the possibility of exports to neighbouring Gulf countries.

In April 2012, a separate team was established to work on projects in Abu Dhabi. Its focus is on attracting companies to industries mentioned in Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030, such as downstream metals converters. No investments have materialised as yet. “It takes time for results,” says Nakanishi.

As for Iraq, the managing director sees immense potential, but concedes it is still too early for Japanese firms to open factories there. “There is a huge demand for reconstruction, but security is still a problem,” Nakanishi says.