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| Ranking officials from Korea's financial sectors and a business delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pose after holding the UAE-Korea Sovereign Investment Partnership Forum in Seoul, May 15. In the front row are Korea Financial Investment Association Chairman Seo Yoo-seok, left, Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee, third from left, First Vice Finance Minister Bang Ki-sun, fourth from left, Mubadala Investment Company Deputy CEO Waleed Al Muhairi, sixth from left, Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kim So-young, seventh from left, and Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Kang Seog-hoon, eighth from left. Courtesy of KDB |
By Lee Min-hyung
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on track to execute $2 billion (2.63 trillion won) of investments in Korea's promising growth areas such as energy and information and communications technology (ICT), the Korea Development Bank (KDB) said in a statement Monday.
This investment comes as a follow-up measure from a summit in January between President Yoon Suk Yeol and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed AI Nahyan, during which the UAE promised to invest $30 billion in Korea.
A business delegation from the Middle Eastern country visited Korea on May 15 and 16 to discuss the investment plans. The delegation consisted of a group of the country's state-run funds and companies there. It picked energy, ICT, agricultural technology, biotechnology, aerospace and culture as initial areas for investment.
The UAE delegation met with officials from Korean companies and discussed investment ideas. Officials from the delegation also held a meeting with Korea's Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho for talks on their future steps on the investment and exchanged opinions on bilateral cooperation with the Korea Development Bank (KDB).
Both sides reaffirmed their interest in increasing bilateral partnerships and pledged to cooperate in more diverse areas for the UAE's specific investment decision-making.
They also reached a consensus on holding a joint economic committee in July to discuss the upcoming investment plans.
Korea's finance ministry welcomed the latest decision from the UAE, saying that the invested capital will be used for not just big companies here, but also for promising startups and small and medium-sized businesses with huge growth potential.
The Korean state-run lender and UAE's Mubadala Investment Company signed a memorandum of understanding on the partnership between the two countries. Both sides will carry out a role managing the overall investment processes for the latest partnership, according to the statement released by KDB.
The economic relationship between Korea and the UAE has developed quickly over the past few years. The trade volume in non-petroleum products between the two countries reached $5.3 billion in 2022, up 14 percent from the previous year.
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