Korea-UAE partnership making big strides

Emirates hopes to invest in Seoul's state-of-the-art technology, including 'mobile harbor' system

By Jung Sung-ki

SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island – At a conference room of a luxury hotel in this southern resort island May 22, a group of 30 middle-aged gentlemen from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were sitting around a round table and listening carefully to presentations by Koreans speakers.

The presentations were about the track records of Korea’s dramatic rise from the ashes of the Korean War (1950-53) over the past six decades, industrial developments, sophisticated technologies, human resources, strong leadership and clear visions of Korea’s former heads of state and business tycoons.

After each presentation, the attendees from different companies of the oil-rich Arab nation asked enthusiastic questions and were eager to learn lessons and pick up tips from the miraculous transformation of Korea from an aid recipient to a major donor which ranks 15th in the world with the nominal GDP of more than 1 trillion won ($92 million).

Key delegates included H. E. Homaid Al Shemmari, who concurrently serves as chairman of Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding and as senior executive director of Mubadala Aerospace; Jamal Salem Obaid Al Dhaheri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation; and Abdullah Al Darmaki, deputy CEO of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development.

The group, apparently similar to Korea’s “goodwill delegation” to Japan about 200 years ago during the Joseon Kingdom, had a certain mission during their weeklong journey to Korea: Exploring secrets of the Korean development model and leverage the knowledge of the fairy tale in every aspect of industrial development in the UAE, which is seeking ways of diversifying its economy heavily dependent on oil and gas industries under Plan Abu Dhabi 2030.

“We looked at key industries in Korea, which are number one, two, five or six in the world,” said Al Shemmari, who led the second “learning delegation” from the UAE. The first delegation of 20 UAE officials visited Korea in April for a five-day stay.

“This is really what we are here to know and to learn. This is not about a single individual or a single effort that helped Korea to arrive at this status,” said Al Shemmari. “This is about the whole nation, individuals, private and public sectors coming together, putting a clear strategy, achieving and bringing realistic and very much stretched goal and coming to a conclusion.

“We’re very humbled by your experience, we’re very humbled by the willingness of Korea to share this knowledge with us,” he continued. “All we can promise is that one day in the near future, we will say we learned from Korea and we have made what the UAE is now.”

Strategic partnership

Since they signed a landmark deal to build four nuclear reactors in the UAE in December 2009, Seoul and Abu Dhabi have been on a speedy track to form a mega partnership in almost all aspects of economic and social sectors.

Timed with the $20 billion nuclear contract, the two governments signed 37 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) regarding six areas _ nuclear, semiconductor, shipbuilding, information technology, human resources and renewable energy. Both sides have signed even more MoUs on oil fields, healthcare, finance, and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since then.

“UAE officials are exploring more areas of bilateral cooperation, such as the agriculture and food sectors,” Christy Hyun-joo Lee, CEO of Daewon Advisory Services FZE, a UAE-based consulting company, which has been commissioned to play a bridging role in the Seoul-Abu Dhabi relationship. Daewon arranged the trip of the Abu Dhabi delegation.

Currently, the UAE is Korea’s second largest trading partner in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia. In terms of exports last year, however, the UAE was the largest with some $5.5 billion, according to the Korea Trade and Investment Agency.

Al Darmaki from Khalifa Fund expressed hope that bilateral MOUs between Korea and the UAE would materialize into action as soon as possible.

“I strongly hope that we are able to arrive at some sort of bilateral agreement. I think talk is not enough,” he said. “I think we need to come up with development action plans. When the next time the President of Korea visits the UAE, I hope he will be able to be more specific about what we can accomplish given his leadership vision. There have to be some tangible results.”

Mobile harbor

Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 is designed to promote the diversification of the Arab nation’s oil-driven economy into a knowledge-based and sustainable structure over the next two decades.

Under the plan, the UAE will adopt up-to-date technologies in developing a city of 3 million people without losing its appeal of modern and comfortable living it has now.

A focus of the vision is on environmental issues, making sure that despite the imminent building boom in the UAE, the country will remain in intimate touch with nature.

Against this backdrop, the visiting UAE delegation was paying keen attention to Korea’s green growth technology, including the “mobile harbor” being developed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) since 2009.

The new technology was presented by Dr. Jang In-gwun, an assistant professor of the Cho Chun Sik Graduate School for Green Transportation at KAIST to the UAE delegates May 21.

The mobile harbor is a lean, light system for unloading container ships even if the coastal area is too shallow for them to dock, Jang said.

Specially designed cargo barges would head out to meet and unload gigantic container ships along any coastline. The vessels will have the advantage of being able to navigate shallow waters and squeeze through narrow rivers.

At the shore, they then will offload onto specially designed platforms.

“The development of the mobile harbor was initiated in the face of a continuous increase in global container shipping and the construction of supersized container ships,” the professor said. “The UAE, in particular, deals with lots of LNG/LPG vessels as a major oil and gas exporter,” he said. “So this technology is expected to be very useful in helping the UAE handle large cargo and container ships more effectively.”

After a two-year research and development, Jang’s team is scheduled to demonstrate the performance of a prototype of the mobile harbor with one third the actual size in July.

KAIST has been implementing the development program with a state funding of some 35 billion won since 2009, according to Jang.

The mobile harbor is also likely to boost anti-terror efforts by keeping container ships with potentially dangerous cargo away from populated areas.

Al Shemmari said he would keep monitoring the mobile harbor technology for future investment.

“That’s the technology we’re looking at,” he said. “If the development is completed by 2017, we would then consider investing in the technology.”