Abe to Host Biz Seminar in Qatar on Aug. 28

Tokyo, Aug. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will host a business seminar in Qatar on Aug. 28 during his planned visits to Middle Eastern nations from Saturday, informed sources said Tuesday. To the gathering, Abe will invite Qatar's senior government officials and top businessmen, as well as Japanese business leaders, the sources told Jiji Press. Qatar is pushing forward large-scale urban infrastructure development projects in the runup to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state. Many Japanese firms have already joined a project to build a new international airport in Doha. By holding the seminar, Abe hopes to help Japanese firms take part in a subway project in the Qatar capital, the sources said. Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, and Hiroshi Okuda, governor of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will be among 40 Japanese participants in the seminar. The sources also said that on the Middle Eastern tour Abe will tell the top leaders of Bahrain and Kuwait what Japan have learned so far from the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011. Abe aims to reduce those countries' concerns about the fallout from a possible accident at an Iranian nuclear power plant located on the other side of the Gulf by teaching them know-how on evacuation and decontamination, they noted. END