(SEOUL=NEWSIS) The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced March 9 that Korean small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) won USD 55.66 million in export contracts at business consulting events in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar organized by KOTRA during Korean President Park Geun-hye’s recent trip to four Middle Eastern countries. A total of 489 business consultations were carried out by 115 Korean companies and 260 local buyers.
Other achievements include winning project orders, promoting joint investment and outsourcing maintenance.
The achievements of the economic delegation have increased hopes of creating a “second Middle East boom.” If the first Middle East boom was concentrated in the construction sector, the second boom will be in more diverse sectors including industrial plants, ICT, medical and health care and education.
The one-to-one business consulting events ushered in cooperation in various sectors.
In the ICT sector, Wooam Corporation signed a contract with Saudi Arabia to export its video education system. Aha Information & Communication signed contracts with the four Middle Eastern countries to export its electronic blackboards and lecture desks.
In the medical and health care sector, Leaders Clinic signed a contract with Qatar for the Qatar Maganim Fund, establishing two hospitals in Qatar worth USD 5 million and exporting cosmetics. Digital Nomad Korea, which specializes in health care, reached a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Qatari Investors Group to jointly establish and run a health examination center.
Korea and the four Middle Eastern countries have agreed to expand cooperation in the manufacturing and service industries, in line with an industrial diversification strategy that is promoted to respond to the post-oil era.
The Korea GCC Fund (KGF) and the Industrial Bank of Kuwait agreed to jointly establish and operate a BOPP film manufacturing plant in Kuwait with Korea’s technology. The KGF also signed a contract with Qatar’s Metals Forming and Support Factories to jointly establish and run a construction material production plant in Qatar.
The Bin Zafrah Group of Saudi Arabia signed an MOU with Korea’s Luminature, an LED manufacturer, for the supply of production facilities. Likewise, local companies are interested in capitalizing on Korea’s manufacturing technology.
KOTRA signed an MOU with the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting and Qatar Development Bank on March 8 to give Korean companies more opportunities to enter the Persian Gulf region.
“This is our first time having so many SMEs participate in one-to-one business consulting events, and during a presidential visit to foreign countries at that. We will hold consulting events on a regular basis and more closely cooperate with the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Korea International Trade Association to bring about more achievements," said KOTRA CEO Kim Jae-hong.
jwshin@newsis.com
Source: Newsis (March 09, 2015)
** This article was translated from the Korean.