Dubai: Jebel Ali Free Zone, Jafza, will be addressing business seminars in Osaka, Tokyo and Hokkaido as part of a 5-day roadshow being conducted to highlight the benefits to Japanese companies who use Jafza and Dubai as the gateway to Middle East and Africa.

Senior Jafza officials, led by Ebrahim Mohammad Al Janahi, the Deputy CEO of Jafza and Chief Commercial Officer of Economic Zones World, will also be meeting one-on-one with Japanese companies to explain the Jafza advantage, along with Khalid Al Marzouqi, Jafza’s Regional Head for the Asia-Pacific region, and Gota Akai, the Japanese Market representative for Jafza sales.

The seminars have been co-organised by Jetro, and are being conducted in collaboration with The Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi UFJ, as well as the Hokkaido Food Industry Promotion Organisation.

Al Marzouqi will take the participants through an introduction of Jafza and the key features, including the world-class logistics infrastructure and the world’s largest logistics corridor under single customs bond, comprising Jebel Ali Free Zone, Jebel Ali Port and Al Maktoum International Airport.

The seminars will benefit Japanese companies looking to expand their presence in the Middle East and Africa market, large companies seeking an efficient trans-shipment hub, companies looking to establish warehouses to serve the Middle East and Africa region and Japanese organisations looking to assist Japanese SMEs in business development across the Middle East.

Jafza currently hosts 145 Japanese companies. Jafza’s total trade volume with Japan stands at around $2.7 billion (Dh9.9 billion). This makes Japan Jafza’s sixth largest partner by trade and 11th largest by number of companies. With ample room for growth, the team is looking to enhance trade ties with Japan and bring more Japanese companies to Jafza and Dubai, helping them connect with one of the world’s leading Free Zones.

Jafza is an economic powerhouse in its own right, which generated trade worth more than $90 billion last year, and according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Jafza’s contribution to the GDP is approximately 20 per cent.

Mitsubishi, Nissan, Panasonic, Toshiba, Honda, Sony, Hitachi Denso and Isuzu are some of the Japanese companies currently operating out of Jafza.