RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and South Korea have announced the establishment of a ministerial level committee to boost cooperation, enhance business networking and ensure sustainable support for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic reforms.
The Saudi-Korea Vision 2030 Committee “focuses on supporting business ventures between the two countries,” Youngjae Kim, diplomat and negotiator at Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Saudi Arabia, told Arab News on Tuesday.
He explained that the committee comprises five key sector sub-groups headed by senior government representatives from both countries: energy and manufacturing, smart infrastructure and digitization, capacity building, health care and life sciences, and SMEs and investments.
There is also a separate sub-group that will monitor and facilitate cooperative efforts, he added.
Kim said the two countries have already agreed on 40 projects across the five key sectors, including joint investments in shipbuilding; desalination and solar power plants; nuclear power plants; automobile production; an e-government cooperation center; robotics; smart city traffic control systems; intelligent CCTV and social safety infrastructure; new economic city development; a Saudi national health insurance system; financial assistance for SME joint ventures; business matchmaking of SMEs; and the construction and operation of theme parks.
At the 18th South Korean and Saudi Arabia Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) in Seoul on Friday, Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, Adel Fakeih, expressed his confidence that the Saudi-Korea Vision 2030 Committee would lay a solid foundation for the two countries to foster a strategic and long-term partnership.
“Foreign Minister Kang noted that Korea, with its technical expertise and experience of economic industrialization, would be the optimal partner for Saudi Arabia as it promotes economic diversification and reform under Vision 2030,” said Korean Embassy spokesman Kim.
Concurrent with the JCM, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC), co-hosted the Vision 2030 Business Forum, which Fakeih also attended, and where he said that “vibrant B2B cooperation” was the key pillar of a bilateral economic partnership.
Over 400 Saudi and Korean business leaders and delegates attended, including South Korea’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Kwon Pyung-oh, who stressed the need to link the innovative strengths of Korean companies with the enthusiasm, needs and boundless potential of Saudi Arabia in order to produce win-win results for both parties.