JEDDAH, 20 August 2007 -- JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization is set to hold the JETRO BioLink Forum 2007 in Pacifico Yokohama, Japan on Sept. 19-21. The forum will be held at the Yokohama InterContinental Hotel and has invited JETRO Riyadh office as among its guests to participate.

The BioLink forum will include lectures and a business matching opportunity with the aim of attracting international companies to join symposiums, networking and one-on-one business talks. The forum will be part of the BioJapan World Business Forum 2007, which is to be used as a platform for adopting the Open Innovation Theory in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Efforts will be made to solve the global level of problems facing the health food, energy, and environment fields.

"This is the first time that we are addressing Saudi companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical fields, therefore it has been difficult in contacting them because it is a relatively new issue but we hope to gain enough interest to have Saudi business representatives at the forum this year," Ahmed Hussein Ahmed, manager, JETRO Riyadh, told Arab News.

The Open Innovation Theory is a concept that has been gathering great momentum worldwide.

The idea is that a group or organization collaborates with one another in joining optimum technology to achieve technological breakthroughs and construct plans of materialize them.

"The main purpose of holding the forum each year is to exchange ideas about the most recent technological advancements in Japan and other countries," said Toyokazu Fukuyama, deputy director general, JETRO Riyadh.

"We very much welcome biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the Kingdom, which seek to build a partnership with Japanese companies to attend the forum. Currently there is only one Japanese pharmaceutical company operating in Saudi Arabia and JETRO wants to make every effort to show the Kingdom the advantages of trading with Japan," Fukuyama added.

Many Saudi companies have the misconception that investing in Japanese companies will be too costly, preferring instead to do business with countries offering less expensive merchandise such as Malaysia or China, he said. "The objective here is that Japan is in the same trading category as countries such as the US and Europe which are more costly than other Asian countries but offer higher quality products and I believe that the most important factor is providing quality and gaining the trust of the Saudi consumer," he noted.

The BioLink 2007 forum is open to any size company and is free of charge. Interested Saudi businesses can register by contacting JETRO Riyadh at (01) 406-6442.

JETRO Riyadh is a semi-governmental non-profit organization established in October 1994 in efforts of promoting and enhancing trade ties between Japan and the Kingdom.

Many Japanese companies have established subsidiaries, branches and production bases throughout the world, and are continuing to expand their networks in all areas, from procurement of materials to production and marketing.

Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the major suppliers of the equipment, parts and materials requiring high precision and microfabrication that are vital to the international competitiveness of major corporations. Some SMEs own niche technologies in areas in which larger corporations are not involved. Japan is at the forefront of hybrid vehicles that are more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly than gasoline vehicles, and their popularity is therefore growing.

By Sarah Abdullah

© Arab News 2007