Panasonic Corporation, a leader in the manufacture of electronic products, has unveiled robust plans for its Middle East & Africa operations this fiscal year under a new leadership.

Panasonic Marketing Middle East & Africa (PMMAF) said its move is in line with the company’s increased focus on emerging markets like Africa and strategy to sustain its active presence across the Middle East.

The company hosted a major meeting in Dubai, which was attended by more than 50 business partners of Panasonic from over 15 countries. The event outlined the increased focus on enhancing showroom display as the key strategy for the region moving forward.

Addressing the gathering, Shinichi Wakita, who recently took over as the PMMAF managing director, said, "The Middle East region has witnessed an exponential growth over the years. Riding along with this fast paced development and while aligning our strategies to keep pace with the ever changing requirement of our customers, our plan for this year will see Panasonic strengthening its competitiveness by introducing new products to the existing large portfolio of products that we already possess."
 
Restructuring has been another proactive approach implemented by the company not only at the global level but also at the regional level.
"Our region now comes under the purview of ISAMEA region (India, South Asia, Middle East and Africa) which is headquartered in India. This augurs well for us to leverage the advantage of our manufacturing facilities and the logistical proximity," he added.

Wakita said that as part of its efforts to boost sales across Middle East & Africa, Panasonic plans to actively promote and create new B2B opportunities, while continuing to increase profitability in the company’s traditional B2C business sphere.

With an association of more than 30 years with the brand, Wakita brings with him rich and varied experience having spent most of his working career outside Japan, especially South East Asia in countries like Malaysia and Vietnam, he noted.

Globally, the company is successfully progressing through its restructuring plan, announcing the third straight year of profit and has unveiled a five year plan targeting a near doubling of sales in the auto sector, a 50 per cent rise in housing sector and also a substantial increase in its B2B business categories, he added.

The key highlights during the convention included the announcement of Panasonic’s latest 4K Ultra-HD VIERA TV - AX800 series with an all new revolutionary Life+ Screen concept – which is expected to be released by mid- May globally and the tailor-made Arabic voice command TV the VIERA AS670 Series which will enable the Arabic speaking consumer’s to voice commands to the TV and is a first of its kind value-added feature available for the Middle East markets.-TradeArabia News Service