Arab News, Wednesday, Jan 19, 2022 | Jamada Al-Aakhirah 16, 1443
Saudi, Korean firms sign multiple business deals as countries partner on developing hydrogen economy
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia and South Korea agreed to work
together in developing the hydrogen economy, President Moon Jae-in’s office
said, after the Korean leader’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman.
“After holding the talks at Al-Yamamah palace in
Riyadh, the two nations signed preliminary deals to jointly develop green
hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy sources, especially solar and
wind, and jointly build a hydrogen ecosystem,” Moon’s office said in a
statement.
Under the deals, Seoul will be able to secure
carbon-neutral hydrogen and ammonia supplies from the Kingdom. It will also help
Riyadh operate hydrogen-powered cars and hydrogen fueling stations.
Moon is on the second leg of his trip to the
Middle East with economic diplomacy, artificial intelligence, public health and
energy cooperation high on the agenda.
On Wednesday, Moon is scheduled to meet Gulf
Cooperation Council Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajjraf to discuss a
free trade agreement between Seoul and the GCC.
Saudi-Korea business forum
After the talks with the Crown Prince, the South
Korean president delivered a keynote speech at a business forum in Riyadh.
“Saudi Arabia, which has the potential to produce
clean hydrogen such as green and blue hydrogen, and South Korea, which has
strengths in hydrogen utilization based on hydrogen-powered cars and fuel cell
technology, must closely cooperate to lead the global hydrogen economy,” Moon
said, as quoted by South Korea’s main news service Yonhap News Agency.
The Saudi-Korean Business Forum culminated today
in 13 investment agreements in such areas of strategic interest as clean energy
and manufacturing, smart infrastructure and digitalization, capacity building,
SMEs, healthcare and life sciences.
The Public Investment Fund and Aramco signed many
deals with leading Korean companies including Posco, in which the PIF owns a
38-percent stake.
Saudi Investment Minister Khaled Al-Falih and
Korean Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Moon Sungwook held a meeting for the
Saudi-Korean Vision 2030 committee, SPA said.
The committee was created in 2017 to harness
complementary resources to generate economic benefits and business opportunities
in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Korea’s Five-Year (2017-2022) Plan
for the Administration of State Affairs.
Deals
Saudi Ministry of Investment signed an
agreement with Samsung C&T to help it develop and localize industries
related to construction technologies and green products and around investing
in building and financing infrastructure projects.
The PIF signed an MoU with Korean
firms POSCO and Samsung C&T to study and develop a green hydrogen production
project in KSA for export purposes, while MISA signed a joint cooperation
with Samsung C&T in the field of green hydrogen for pre-cast concrete blocks
and infrastructure.
Saudi Aramco signed an MoU with Korea
Electric Power Corporation, KEPCO, for a pre-feasibility study on blue
ammonia and blue hydrogen for investment, production, logistics and sales,
an agreement with POSCO regarding investment in blue ammonia and blue
hydrogen and a basic terms agreement with Export-Import Bank of Korea for
framework agreements that include a credit limit of up to $6 billion. Saudi
Aramco also signed a series of agreements with S-Oil around areas including
research and development, blue hydrogen and technology development.
The Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments
Co. (Dussur), Saudi Aramco and Doosan Heavy Industries and
Construction signed an agreement to establish a high-efficiency factory in
iron molding and forging in Ras Al-Khair, with a production capacity of
83,000 tons annually. The deal is expected to attract foreign investment,
transfer quality technology to Saudi Arabia and localize supply chains for
strategic sectors in the equipment industry for the oil and gas, water,
energy and marine industries.
Saudi real estate developer
ROSHN and Samsung C&T agreed to establish a non-exclusive framework to
jointly explore opportunities in housing development and pre-cast concrete
blocks.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office and
the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) signed advanced
partnership arrangements for bilateral cooperation, including the secondment
of Korean experts to SAIP
The Ministry of National Guard signed a
letter of intent agreement with EzCaretech to jointly provide and implement
Dr. Answer – an artificial intelligence-based medical solutions tool –
within targeted hospitals.
Kumho Tire and Al-Sahm Al-Usud for
Tires signed a technical partnership agreement to establish a factory for
tire production. The factory’s production capacity will reach 15 million
tires annually, and production is expected to start in the third quarter of
2023.
Saudi-Korea trade
Saudi Arabia is South Korea’s top economic
and trade partner in the Middle East, contributing over 30 percent of
Seoul’s total crude oil imports in 2021, according to data by the Korea
International Trade Association.
The Kingdom and the Republic of Korea have
a long history of partnership, beginning with the establishment of
diplomatic relationships 60 years ago. This relationship has benefitted both
countries economically, with bilateral trade increasing from $3.9 billion in
1980 to $25.5 billion in 2019.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s Industry
Minister Moon Sung-wook met Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin
Salman in Riyadh for talks on cooperation in nuclear power and other energy
fields in transition to a low carbon economy.
So far, joint Saudi-Korean projects amount
to 120 with a value of around $1 billion, of which 20 percent are industrial
projects.
Trade exchange between both countries has
increased by 66 percent during the third quarter of 2021, compared to the
same period last year, jumping to SR27.7 billion ($7 billion), according to
SPA.
UAE-Korea cooperation
The trip to Saudi Arabia follows Moon’s
four-day visit to the UAE that included the signing of a $3.5 billion to
sell Korean surface-to-air missiles KM-SAM, known as Cheongung II.
In addition to the arms export deal — the
largest such agreement in South Korea’s history — Abu Dhabi and Seoul agreed
to expand their cooperation in the development of carbon-capture
technologies to create what is known as blue hydrogen, as the East Asian
nation seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Blue hydrogen is obtained from natural gas
in a process that stops carbon emissions from being released into the
atmosphere.