President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea, stressed the importance of her country's relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was established nearly 53 years. The president said the relations contributed to strengthening the two countries' economies and the Saudi market has provided opportunities for the growth of Korean companies specialized in infrastructure. She made the remarks during the Saudi-Korean Business Forum organized by the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh in the presence of Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Al- Rabiah, Governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority Engineer Abdullatif Al-Othman, and a number of officials in the two countries. She stated that the forum is part of fruitful and historical cooperation between the two countries and reaffirms the existence of a genuine desire to increase cooperation and take advantage of new opportunities and achieve fruitful partnership in light of the excellent relations between the two governments in the presence of an active business sector. The president cited the presence of a trade delegation from her country representing a number of Korean companies in various professional, technical, industrial and service areas that had some contributions to the establishment of major projects in the kingdom in the past and the current period. She expressed pride in her country being the fourth trade partner of the kingdom and the fact that Koreans have worked hard in the field of development and construction of infrastructure in the kingdom and the role played by Korean construction workers in the area of construction in the kingdom in the seventies and eighties of the last century. The president of Korea noted the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is among the most important project markets for Korean companies in the region, expressing hope for boosting cooperation between the two countries. She said that her country is ready to contribute to the transfer of expertise and technology to the development of Saudi industries and achieve the kingdom's plan to reduce dependence on oil in the future and enhance the services and industries in the kingdom. The Korean president called on business and governments of the two countries to strengthen cooperation in traditional and renewable energy and building power plants and to contribute to the sectors of electricity, water and nuclear power reactors, which will need huge financial capital investments and major projects which will be implemented over the next 20 years. She looked forward to strengthening the existing cooperation to include the sectors of health and education services, information technology and the pharmaceutical industry and other services needed by the Saudi market. The President of the Republic of Korea stressed the importance of work by the business sectors of the two countries for the implementation of major projects and increase of joint ventures size in both countries to benefit from the expertise of the two sectors and financial abundance to achieve balanced economic development and take advantage of opportunities, especially in infrastructure sector and its major projects in the economies of the two countries. The forum, which was held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, started with a speech by the head of the Council of Saudi Chambers Dr. Abdulrahman Al Zamil who stressed that importance of the forum and partnership between the two countries. For his part, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah emphasized that the Saudi-Korean relations are not just a relationship of friendship and cooperation and mutual respect between the two countries, but also have close ties, and their relationship exceeded the traditional concept of the meaning of friendship, when it became closer by mutual visits at the highest levels and by strategic partnership, which included many areas, and by bilateral agreements, which included various fields. He pointed out that the relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea have seen remarkable growth over the past five decades, as they have developed through the mega-projects implemented by the Korean companies in the Kingdom since the seventies of the last century, noting that the volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounted last year to SR 170 billion, where the Kingdom's exports to Korea was SR 133 billion, and imports from Korea was worth SR 37 billion. Dr. Al-Rabiah further said that the Republic of Korea is one of the most important trading partners of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and comes among top ten ranking export and import countries to and from the Kingdom, in addition to the presence of (120) Saudi-Korea joint ventures worth of nearly one billion dollars, of which 20 % are industrial projects and the remaining are non-industrial projects in the Kingdom. The Minister of Commerce and Industry also stressed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen to support and develop trade relations with key partners through mechanisms that contribute to this, including participation in conferences and meetings that are held in both countries, expressing his aspirations that the Forum achieves its objectives, including: strengthening the trade and economic exchanges between the two countries, creating an effective environment to encourage the private sector in both countries to seize available value-added investment opportunities, contributing to supporting the economies of the two countries and cooperating in the field of knowledge-based industries. The Minister of Commerce and Industry explained that the Kingdom is working to attract foreign investment in value-added industrial and service sectors, including energy, petrochemicals and water desalination, financial services, and other sectors through the provision of good facilities in this aspect, in addition to making substantial modifications to support its national economy. He added that there are positive results, including: high financial resources through which the Kingdom was able to support its various development projects in the education and health sectors, as well as transport, housing and communications sectors, and the diversification of the incoming foreign investments to the Kingdom. Dr. Al-Rabiah said that thus the kingdom became in the forefront of countries that attracted a variety of foreign investment and a member of the Group of Twenty, which is considered as one of the largest economic groups in the world. In his speech during the Second Saudi-Korean Business Opportunities Forum in Riyadh, the Governor of Saudi Arabian General of Investment Authority Engineer Abdul Latif bin Ahmed Al-Othman said that the kingdom considers Korea as one of the most important countries to attract investment from. He pointed out that an agreement to encourage and protect investment between the two countries was signed on 4 April 2002. He added that the agreement on the prevention of double taxation on March 24, 2007 and that total Korean investments in the kingdom were 243 projects by the end of 2014 with investment total value of 3.4 billion riyals, ranging between industrial to service projects. He stated that there is a growing demand from Korean companies to get licenses from the authority, which welcomes them through special track dedicated to targeted investments. Engineer Abdul Latif Al-Othman reviewed Saudi achievements at the economic and investment levels. The governor highlighted efforts to attract investments including software providing local and international investors with an electronic platform containing comprehensive and updated information on the kingdom. He explained the kingdom's preparation for the consolidated investment plan to establish investment entities to achieve sustainable development in collaboration with relevant government agencies. He said the investment plan for health care identified more than 40 investment opportunities in health care sector with investment opportunities worth $ 19 billion. Engineer Al-Othman added that in the public transport sector, 36 investment opportunities have been identified with investments value of $ 24.5 billion. He stressed that the kingdom today more than ever is the perfect choice for investment due to political stability, financial strength and other important factors. At the end of the opening ceremony, several agreements were signed and a number of presentations were shown.
