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| HE Moez Al Fahim, Charge d’Affaires, UAE Embassy in Japan with Ibrahim Aljanahi, Deputy CEO of Jafza and his team at the UAE Embassy in Tokyo. |
A five-day roadshow across Japan of the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), Dubai's flagship free zone entity and the trade and logistics hub for the wider Middle East region spanning West Asia, the CIS, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, has positioned the Jafza as the halal industry hub in the region.
Ibrahim Mohamed Aljanahi, Deputy CEO of Jafza and Chief Commercial Officer of Economic Zones World, the parent company of the Free Zone, said: "The overwhelming response that Jafza's halal-focused roadshow received reflects Japan's sharply growing interest in serving rapidly growing markets for halal products. Japan seeks to reach and serve over 2 billion consumers of halal food and other products in the world including the wider Middle East region which forms the sector's largest market. This is the market Jafza as a trade and logistics hub serves. Jafza provides everything that Japanese businesses require to become a significant force in the halal industry particularly in food, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors."
In presentations to Japanese businesses, Jafza talked about two state-of-the-art Halal Zones being developed - one in Jafza and the other in TechnoPark, its sister company, to serve regional, international, as well as the local markets.
Adil Al Zarooni, SVP Sales, Jafza said: "These Halal Zones will be all-inclusive hubs, supported with world-class infrastructure, perfectly suited to attract leading enterprises in the entire gamut of halal industry. Halal Zones will integrate a one-stop-shop system to service each and every need of customers in the halal supply chain, offering ease of doing business.
"Jafza seeks to collaborate and attract organisations, associations, accreditation bodies, R&D, as well as advisory firms to support the entire halal value chain right from R&D, product development to sourcing, production, logistics, sales and marketing."
As a part of its ,ission the Free Zone will promote the halal standards globally. The standards are developed and evolved by Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology and Dubai Accreditation Department.
"Looking at the interest of Japanese businesses we are sure to attract a significant number of new Japanese companies in food, pharmaceutical, healthcare sectors besides other streams including energy, infrastructure, electronics and transportation," said Al Zarooni.
Jafza is currently home to 142 top Japanese companies including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Nippon Steel, Marubeni Itochu Steel and JX Holdings. Most of these companies are serving markets in West Asia, the CIS, Africa and the Indian subcontinent from their respective regional headquarters in the Free Zone.