Early next month, Saudi Arabia will visit Korea for a defense industry conference.
A large number of heads of major groups, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, will accompany a visit to Saudi Arabia by political and related figures late next month. Business leaders plan to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and also participate in energy cooperation and winning orders for ‘Neom City’.
According to the business world on the 26th, Chairman Lee, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, and HD Hyundai President Chung Ki-sun will visit Saudi Arabia for a 4-day, 3-night schedule from October 21 to 24. On the government side, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho, new Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Kyu, and Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong are considering going to Saudi Arabia. It is known that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and LG CEO Koo Kwang-mo will not participate in the visit to Saudi Arabia as they have schedules for hosting the ‘2030 Busan World Expo (Expo)’ in South America and Africa during the period. Chairman Choi, Chairman Chung, and President Chung are scheduled to participate in the Qatar schedule on the 25th.
Crown Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto power, is leading the ‘Vision 2030’ policy to break away from the oil-dependent economic structure, including Neom City, a new city construction project. When he visited Korea in November last year, he met with eight business leaders, including Chairman Lee, and discussed ways to cooperate.
It was previously confirmed that a Saudi government delegation will visit Korea early next month and hold a large-scale defense industry meeting in Seoul with government officials from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), as well as executives from major domestic defense companies. At this meeting, the Saudi side plans to listen to explanations from domestic defense companies about the military’s main weapons and discuss ways to cooperate. A government official said, “I understand that Saudi Arabia first considered a delegation visit to Korea and holding a defense industry conference.”
Source: Donga
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