As South Korea’s Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Lee Young and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih met in Riyadh, the two nations discussed ways to improve their collaboration in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. Both ministers discussed recruiting Korean SMEs into the Kingdom as well as the potential for investment collaborations during the meeting.
During the Korean delegation’s visit to Saudi Arabia, several memorandums of understanding were also signed. These agreements are meant to support SMEs and encourage entrepreneurs to invest more heavily in their businesses with confidence and emphasis.
With the help of these MoUs, there will be an allure of investments in the fields of tourism and hospitality, digital automation, health, and agricultural technology, robotics, artificial intelligence for smart cities, and digital content.
Young expressed her optimism in an interview, saying that closer connections with Saudi Arabia would inspire companies in her country to expand into the international market. She said these on the sidelines of the Riyadh entrepreneurship conference, Biban 2023.
Even though there are many startups in South Korea, the majority of them are concentrated in the local market, Young stated. As the two nations’ relations improve, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Korea in 2022 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to major corporations, SMEs, and startups.
Young said that the Saudi authorities at the time explained which subjects they were all interested in. Smartphones, new energy, and game-like content, for instance.
Saudi Arabia is bolstering its commercial and economic relations with a number of nations as part of its economic diversification policy, which is in accordance with the objectives established in Vision 2030.
Khalid Al-Falih met with former Cyprus leader Nicos Anastasiades earlier in March and discussed joint cooperation in multiple fields.
Al-Falih also met with Cyprus’s Finance Minister, Makis Keravnos, and the two parties inked a framework cooperation agreement to foster mutual investment prospects between the West Asian nations and the Kingdom.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria agreed to create a “Saudi-Bulgarian Joint Committee” in March to carry out general collaboration in a number of areas. The joint committee will endeavor to improve the bilateral economic relations between the two nations and also work towards the enhancement of cooperation opportunities in various fields.
The decision to establish a joint Saudi-Croatian business council to explore new areas of economic cooperation between the two nations was made in February at a meeting between the former president of Croatia, Colinda Grabar, and Saudi business owners at the Riyadh’s headquarters of the Federation of Saudi Chambers.
Grabar also stated during the meeting that her nation wanted to establish an agreement for economic cooperation with the Kingdom to broaden the scope of trade and investment collaboration.
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