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Korea eyeing Middle East market
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2012-05-24
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Korea eyeing Middle East market


Korea will increase its exports to Middle Eastern nations to $100 billion by 2020 and support more domestic firms to gain a strong position in the region’s fast-growing energy, information technology, financial and medical industries.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced Wednesday a set of plans aimed at boosting strategic investment in the potential-laden region.

Under the plan, the ministry will form stronger partnerships with Middle East nations as part of efforts to bolster the country’s trade volume with the region. Korea exported products worth $34 billion to Middle Eastern states last year.

The state-run trade promoter, or Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Corporation (KOTRA), will map out concrete strategies and play a supporting role to increase exports and investment into the area.

The ministry said the economic outlook of the region is brighter than ever thanks to the Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave of pro-democracy uprisings that toppled long-time dictatorship in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The ministry said Middle Eastern counties will provide domestic firms with great business opportunities since they are gearing up to reinstate their devastated territories and infrastructure undermined during the uprisings.

The government will put particular attention on oil-rich nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya and Iraq among others. It will encourage more firms to make investments in the fields of power generation, transportation, communications and other infrastructures.

Korea saw dramatic economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s thanks largely to the region’s booming economy on oil dollars. Then many Korean firms, mostly builders, earned a great amount of money by making roads, water pipes, and other key facilities.

For that reason, the government describes the latest plan as the pursuit of the “second boom in the Middle East.?

KOTRA President Oh Young-ho held a strategy meeting in Doha, Wednesday, with heads of the firm’s offices in the region and discussed ways to capitalize on the second boom.

A KOTRA official said the project will be pushed forward in a win-win format, where Korean government and firms will share their growth experience and related knowledge with target countries.

“We will put more emphasis on exporting our knowledge, experience and culture, rather than technologies for construction,?Oh said. “Korean culture is very popular in the Middle East. This will give Korean firms a competitive advantage in securing lucrative projects.?

By Park Si-soo



# The Korea Times [May 23 2012]