Korea-UAE Partnership Tones Up Over Time
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Leaping toward a common goal of becoming regional hubs, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea have kept close ties since tying official diplomatic relations in the summer of 1980. But the bilateral cooperation has recently strengthened to enrich economic and cultural exchange between the two countries.
Most recently, UAE Prime Minister and Vice President Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited Seoul last month to establish strategic cooperation and partnership in expanding mutual investments in tourism, technology, industry and energy.
During the prime minister’s first visit to Korea, he actively met and discussed with local business community leaders, describing UAE as a major emerging hub of international financing and service business with great market potential.
Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, UAE Minister of Economy, who also attended the state visit, emphasized that the bilateral trade between UAE and South Korea has grown rapidly during the past three years.
``Our total trade has witnessed an impressive increase of around 100 percent over the past three years; up from $7.96 billion in 2003 to $15.827 billion in 2006, registering an annual increase of around 25 percent,’’ said the minister at a business meeting during the trip. ``If anything, this is indicative of the steady growth in economic ties that our countries are currentl witnessing.’’
A recent data released by the Statistics Department of Dubai showed that non-oil trade between Dubai and Seoul jumped 8.75 percent in 2006, with the Gulf country’s exports to Korea growing 21.8 percent.
Such growth has been pushed by the presidential meetings last year between UAE President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and South Korean President Roh Moo-hun in Abu Dhabi.
During the official visit, Roh aimed to lock energy security with the UAE, the world’s fifth largest petroleum producing country, with 97.8 billion barrels of petroleum and 6.06 trillion cubic meters of gas in reserve.
Many South Korean firms have been investing in many of the mega-scale construction projects UAE is undergoing to ready itself for a ``post-oil money’’ era backed from the massive amounts of gains made through petroleum related businesses over the past years.
As of January this year, three major Korean companies _ Bando Constructing, Sungwon Corporation, Axon Gulf _ are investing over $2 billion in the booming real estate market, likely to double the amount soon.
The money is currently in building the major projects at Business Bay and Dubailand, but Bando said it would invest $1 billion over the next two to three years to erect three mega projects in the UAE on top of the U-Bora Towers at Business Bay, which was the company’s entry work.
Business Bay is a central business district under construction in downtown Dubai, which will have about 230 buildings, along with commercial and residential developments. The first buildings are planned to be finished by 2007 with the final ones nearing completion by 2010.
Dubailand is an entertainment complex also under development in Dubai, and the work’s first phase is currently carried out.
These two areas are where much of the local investors are putting their money in.
As one of Korea’s largest integrated construction companies, Sungwon Corporation doesn’t fall behind in biting out of the Dubai pie.
It recently said it would invest $1.2 billion in the Middle East property sector.
``Apart from our first two projects at Business Bay and Culture Village, we are negotiating other deals with Dubai Properties that will be announced soon,’’ a Sungwon official was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times, Dubai’s daily English language newspaper.
Another major local firm, Axon Gulf is investing $1.5 billion in tower projects in Dubailand and Business Bay.
As many of the projects show, the UAE has lately emerged as the biggest overseas market for Korean construction companies.
Korean builders’ orders from the UAE amounted to $2.93 billion, or 32 percent of the country’s total first quarter overseas order this year worth $9.15 billion, according to the construction ministry.
And in return for local investors heavy works in the UAE, Korea is the Gulf country’s second largest Asian trade partner after Japan.