SEOUL — Daewoo International held a job fair solely to recruit personnel for the establishment of a domestic auto industry in Saudi Arabia, the company said on Thursday. Saudi Arabian sovereign fund PIF (Public Investment Fund) has launched a project in an attempt to establish a domestic automobile manufacturer, and launched a sovereign automobile company known as SNAM. On May 9, 150 Saudi Arabian university students currently studying in Korea participated in the job fair, which was jointly held by SNAM. It was the first job fair in Korea held to recruit workers that would be sent to Saudi Arabia. It was reported that Daewoo International would be one of the three major shareholders in the project, through the purchase of a 15 percent stake in SNAM for 60 billion won ($55 million). SNAM will have the 50 percent stake and PIF takes 35 percent stake. Under the deal, SNAM, PIF and Daewoo International will collectively invest approximately $1 billion to build the plant. Daewoo International is planning to participate in all phases of the production of Saudi Arabian cars. The company said that it is in the process of finalizing terms with its Saudi Arabian counterpart. Daewoo International is a trading subsidiary of POSCO, a multinational steel-making company headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. “If Daewoo International oversees the project, both POSCO's auto sector and its construction arm will be able to contribute to Saudi, creating synergy for the group,” a POSCO official was quoted as saying earlier. The auto market in Saudi Arabia currently sells about 700,000 cars per year ? roughly half of that in Korea. The project, which is expected to start in 2017, will have a capacity of 150,000 Saudi-brand cars a year, and it will also lead to domestication of parts manufacture and export to other GCC countries from Saudi Arabia can be anticipated. Daewoo International plans to oversee the entire process of assembly production beginning with the planning stage, while POSCO Engineering & Construction, the group's construction arm, may participate in the actual building of the auto plant. For the trading company, it may also mean the potential distribution of Korean auto industry technology and parts. Daewoo International has previous experience with operating auto plants abroad and currently collects over 1.2 trillion won ($1.13 billion) in overseas sales. — SG/Agencies
