The UAE Minister of Economy His Excellency Sultan Al Mansouri, and His Excellency H.E. Yoon Jeung- Hyun, Minister of Strategy and Finance, South Korea, issued a joint statement in Seoul, marking the close of the second meeting of the UAE-Korean Joint Economic Committee.
The two sides held in-depth discussions on ways to strengthen cooperation in several areas including trade, investment, civil aviation, energy and renewable energy, infrastructure development, financial services, healthcare services, education, technical cooperation, e-government, statistics, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and Intellectual Property Rights.
The meeting evaluated the current economic situation and the key economic policy policies of the two countries. The South Korean side explained the Korean Government’s efforts to carry out short-term response measures to cope with the global financial crisis, as well as policies to power new growth engines for the economy, and presented South Korea’s future economic policy direction.
Both countries agreed to facilitate the Korea-UAE Business Forum, and recognised the importance of exchanges and cooperation at both governmental and private sector levels to boost economic cooperation. Among the key areas to strengthen bilateral investments and technological cooperation are sustainable and renewable energy, Financial services, Healthcare, Environmental cooperation, Tourism and Railway.
The participants expressed full support to the efforts taken by both governments and the private sectors to strengthen bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The two sides agreed to facilitate market access for a range of goods and services through trade exhibitions, fairs, business forums and business delegation meets.
The Joint Economic Committee discussed the implications and avenues for bilateral cooperation in Korea’s Free Economic Zones and UAE’s Free Zones and reaffirmed the significance of these special economic zones in driving economic development. They agreed to channel this opportunity to strengthening cooperation between the special economic zones. Visits to the free zones and information sharing to promote foreign investment will be arranged.
The experience in SMEs will be shared and cooperation enhanced by holding venture capital fairs. The UAE proposed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with South Korea to strengthen SME cooperation this year. The UAE also expressed interest in sending a delegation of young UAE entrepreneurs to South Korea to learn more about the country’s success with SMEs.
The UAE side requested for an immediate increase of frequencies and a more liberal open sky policy in the near future. Both sides confirmed their desire to cooperate on issues related to civil aviation. The UAE side asked for more facilities for UAE designated carriers with Korea’s Customs Authority with respect to import and storage of spare parts.
In the field of energy, both sides expressed their keen interest to expand cooperation in the domain of energy and renewable energy and expressed their full support for the successful conclusion of the MOU between the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for strategic cooperation.
Both sides acknowledged the need to enhance cooperation in the construction sector including urban planning and infrastructure development, such as power plants. The Korean firms expressed their willingness to participate in the UAE’s "Plan Abu Dhabi 2030". Upon reviewing requests from the UAE side for Korean firms to participate in the "UAE Railway Project", both sides agreed to make reciprocal exchange of information regarding the project.
In the domain of Environmental Development, both sides agreed to make contribution in promoting sustainable growth by strengthening cooperation in environmental technology and industry such as desalination technology, waste water recycling, resource recovery, and recycling, and stressed the need to cooperate in the field of environmental protection.
The UAE expressed its interest to benefit from Korea’s advanced experience in the fields of science and technology. Both sides agreed to encourage their competent agencies and entities to strengthen mutual cooperation and exchange of expertise in all related areas.
In the field of Financial Services, both sides agreed through their financial authorities to exchange views on various activities and financial products, and to explore ways to boost reciprocal cooperation in various areas including Islamic financing.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea and the Ministry of Health of the UAE agreed to establish a dialogue channel with the aim of signing an MOU on healthcare cooperation. They also agreed to actively cooperate in licensing Korean healthcare professionals in the UAE, in accordance with the rules and regulations.
The two sides agreed to simplify the approval process of documents for overseas students and agreed on the importance of concluding an MOU on education and science to further promote exchanges of professors, teachers, researchers and students in both countries.
The UAE and South Korea also agreed to work in close partnership through the government and private sector to facilitate the growth of the ICT sector in both countries.
They recognized the importance of having timely and authoritative statistics in building a knowledge based economy, and stressed that building statistical capacity is vital in evidence- based decision making, economic growth and social development. Both sides signed an MOU for bolstering bilateral relations in the domain of statistics. They also signed a MoU to promote cooperation in Intellectual Property Right issues. Training seminars will be organised in Korea for UAE officers working in IPRs. Both sides discussed working together in other fields including vocational training, e-government, and customs.
An appropriate mechanism will be established to oversee the implementation of the outcome of the Joint Economic Committee and to provide a progress report every six months. The technical team will meet after one year to evaluate the implementation of the agreed upon issues in accordance with the Agreed Minutes of the Second Korea-UAE Joint Economic Committee.
Both sides also agreed to hold the Third Korea-UAE Joint Economic Committee Meeting in 2012 in Abu Dhabi.
