Riyadh, November 26, 2018 -- The 17th forum of the Saudi-Japanese Business Council, which started in Tokyo today, was attended by several businessmen from the Saudi and Japanese sides, the Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East, the Council of Saudi Ambassador to Japan. The forum is to discuss health, education and investment cooperation between the public and private sectors, in both countries. First session of the forum was chaired by the Co-chairmen of the Saudi-Japanese Business Council Hiroshi Saito, on the Japanese side, and the Chairman of the Saudi-Japanese Business Council Tariq bin Abdulhadi Al-Qahtani, on the other. Saudi-Japanese relations witnessed an important development in various economic fields, such as development of bilateral economic relations to promote investment and trade between the two countries and their orientation towards building a strategic relationship that focuses on the economy, through diversifying and increasing trade exchange and deepening channels of dialogue and cooperation. Volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached 32 billion dollars last year, and the two sides stressed that the role of the Saudi-Japanese Business Council is to increase Japanese activity in the Kingdom, in the fields of education technical training and extending bridges of cooperation between the two countries, in the field of small and medium enterprises, to exploit investment opportunities available, in the Kingdom, which are concentrated in agriculture, health, oil and gas, mining, power generation and industrial projects. -- SPA 21:50 LOCAL TIME 18:50 GMT 0034 www.spa.gov.sa/w794446