R) Joo Kyoung-chyan, a consul at the Korean consulate; new Consul General Shin Yong-gi; and Sang W.Lee, General Manager at Hankook tire Co. Ltd. (SG photo by Fouzia Khan)The new Korean Consul General, Shin Yong-gi, took the consulate's helm last month and has started working to enhance the relationship between the two countries. Shin Yong-gi told Saudi Gazette in an exclusive interview that he was in Riyadh before joining the consulate in Jeddah. “I served in Riyadh for two and half years and then came to Jeddah and found it to be a different city – a more commercial one,” he said. “I had a unique experience in Riyadh through which I think I now have some understanding about Arab culture.” He joined the Korean embassy in Riyadh in June 2008 as deputy minister to support the Ambassador and handle embassy affairs in his absence. Before coming to Saudi Arabia, he worked at several countries around the world, but Saudi Arabia is the first Arab and Islamic country he has served in. “As the Consul General, my primary duties are to serve the community and revitalize business activities and cultural exchange between Korea and Saudi Arabia,” he explained. Yong-gi has been in Jeddah for almost seven weeks, and has been meeting with several businessmen and government officials. “I find that young Saudi businessmen have immense affection for Jeddah and the Kingdom's culture and traditions; they are proud of their culture and the fact that they are Jeddawis,” he added. “They are also aware of the challenges and opportunities open to them in the future, as well as the difficulties and problems of the region, but I found them to be very determined to overcome their obstacles. They have a lot of potential to cooperate with any corporate partners in the world.” In the early 1980s, thousands of Korean construction workers worked and lived in Saudi Arabia, so Yong-gi said that Saudi culture does not seem unfamiliar to many Koreans. “For a non Muslim, it might seem like a closed society, but if we enter the society, I think Saudis are very familiar and friendly,” he said. He is looking forward to the challenges his new post presents. “The first difficulty I might face is that we closed our consulate in 1999 and reopened in 2008, so there was some gap and the question now is how I can make up for that period,” he stated. “I need to focus on the business sector and also between the Korean missions here in Jeddah for the time being.” Since 2008, the Saudi economy has become one of the top booming economies and Korean companies and workers here in Jeddah will definitely try to utilize the opportunities such an economy presents, he added. For enhancing trade between the two countries, Yong-gi said that more exchange is required. Korea is the Kingdom's largest trade partner after China, the US and Japan, and last year, trade between the two countries amounted to $31 billion while oil imports from the Kingdom amounted to $25 billion. Exports from Korea, meanwhile, amounted to $4.5 billion in the form of automobiles and mobile phones, among others. “We should expand our trade through management. We should invest more effort into bringing delegations from Korea to Saudi Arabia and vice versa,” Yong-gi said. “This is my main aim as well as that of the Korean government and the Embassy. We would like to be partners with Saudi Arabia for long term strategies in the development. I have placed high priority working towards sharing human resource development, global energy, and so on. We would also like to prioritize education. At the moment, almost 100 Saudi students are studying in Korea under the King Abdullah scholarship program.” He added that he wants to increase the number of Saudi students in Korea, and wants to see more vocational training programs for Saudi students. Last week, for instance, the Samsung Engineering Association established an engineering center in the Kingdom here to provide training to Saudi students. Likewise, LG has also established an IT academy particularly for women. “We want to share the Korean experience in economic development with Saudi Arabia. During our economic development, we obviously made some mistakes, but we don't want Saudis to make the same mistakes that we did. This is the main reason why we want to share the development of the country and why we're here in the first place,” said Yong-gi. He commented that he also wants Saudi businesswomen to interact with their Korean counterparts. “We not only want trade delegations, but we want to improve the connection between young Saudi and Korean businessmen,” he explained. “People to people interaction is the most important thing for any type of trade or mutual understanding.” Yong-gi commented on celebrating the 25th anniversary next year of the Kingdom's relations with Korea. “We will use the occasion to boost cultural exchange between the two countries,” he said, “Moreover, next year, Saudi Arabia is invited to a book fair in Korea and I hope that Saudi ministries and their embassy in Korea, will take the opportunity to spread Saudi culture in Korea.” Yong-gi advises Saudi students and businessmen to visit Korean and experience Korean culture to learn about how business is conducted there. “Korea is a great place to visit in the summer. It's a good time for Saudi businessmen and others to visit Korea as it is very pleasant and cool. The red mountains are a very pleasant place to visit,” he remarked. He recommends visiting the Jeju (Cheju) Island. Yong-gi also advised his fellow countrymen to “pay attention to the Saudi government's development strategies, human resource development, development of the information technology sector” and “find out how best to cooperate with Saudi businessmen”.
