Invest KOREA

Held a Business Partnership Meeting in Riyadh on Sep 11 in conjunction with Korea-Middle East Shuttle Economic Cooperation Group
30 Korean companies in the fields of smart farms, food, and plant equipment participated

KOTRA (President Yu Jeoung-yeol) held a Korea-Saudi Business Partnership Meeting, in conjunction with the 3rd Korea-Middle East Shuttle Economic Cooperation Group, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 11.

The 'Korea-Middle East Shuttle Economic Cooperation Group', pushed for by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Lee Chang-yang), is a project to dispatch public-private joint cooperation groups to major Middle Eastern countries to check the implementation of the things agreed during presidential trips and look for additional cooperation. So far, Ministries such as MOTIE and the MCST (Minister Park Bo-gyoon) have formed cooperation groups twice, and the third cooperation group was co-hosted by the MOTIE and the MAFRA (Minister Chung Hwang-keun) and this groups was headed by the vice minister of the MAFRA.

At this business partnership meeting, 30 Korean companies in the fields of smart farms, food, and plant equipment and 50 Saudi buyers and investors participated and conducted more than 200 one-on-one business consultations in the partnership meeting.

Saudi Arabia has been focusing its finances on 13 strategic areas, led by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF (Public Investment Fund) since announcing the national development plan 'Saudi Vision 2030' in 2016. Saudi Arabia has been fostering agriculture as a key strategic area recently by investing about USD 5.3 billion of agricultural development funds, responding to rising importance of food security, in agriculture alone, such as △ introducing smart agricultural technology △ purchasing agricultural and livestock equipment and △ nurturing manpower.

"We met various Korean companies capable of designing and operating smart farms based on their excellent technology at this meeting," said a purchasing manager of Saudi Greenhouses, which operates local large-scale greenhouses there and carries out various projects, adding, "With this participation in this meeting, we will be able to cooperate with Korean companies on introduction of smart farm technology and equipment".

Yang Ki-mo, who heads the KOTRA offices in the Middle East region, said, "With the Shuttle Economic Cooperation Group, we could see that in-depth consultations are held in each field, and local buyers are showing much more trust," adding, "We will continue to work closely with relevant domestic and overseas ministries and agencies to ensure that the 'New Middle-East Boom' to expand in the Middle East, leading to 'Export Plus'.



Source : KOTRA (2023.09.12.)