Keynote Speech by H.E. Mr. Lee Taeho
                                                                       Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
                                                                                            Republic of Korea
 

Your Excellency, Professor Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi, Director General of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research,
Your Excellency, Khaleefa Al Mansouri, Undersecretary of the Department of Economic Development,
Your Excellency, Ambassador Suh Chung-ha, President, Jeju Peace Institute,
Your Excellency, Ambassador Kim Jin Soo, Secretary-General, Korea-Arab Society,
Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
 

Assalam alaikum,

 
It is a great pleasure for me to be with you to attend the 15th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum, which is returning to the United Arab Emirates after 6 years.

 
I would like to thank the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research for its support to this important annual forum linking Korea and the Middle East. More than 20 Korean Ambassadors stationed in the Middle East are here with us today. I thank them. I am personally delighted for the opportunity to visit Abu Dhabi, an oasis of innovation and growth in the region and the world.
 
The 11-hour flight from Seoul to Abu Dhabi was a physical reminder of the long distance between our two regions. But geography has been no barrier to partnership and exchanges between us. Modern cooperation between Korea and the Middle East stretches back almost fifty years. But in reality, our cultural and commercial ties extend more than a millennium, beginning with Arab merchants arriving in Korea in the middle of the ninth century – some of whom even settled in Korea and contributed to society.
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
 

Building upon this longstanding shared history, we are entering a new phase of partnership. When we met for this Forum in Seoul last November,
we presented the 3Ps – Peace, Prosperity, and People – as the building blocks for a new vision of Korea-Middle East partnership. 

 
The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents us unprecedented opportunities to upgrade this partnership of peace, prosperity and people-to-people exchange between Korea and the Middle East. The Fourth Industrial Revolution constitutes a paradigm shift in our partnership. It will change permanently the mode of our collaboration and broaden the sphere of our partnerships.

 
In this regard, this year’s theme – the Korea-Middle East Partnership in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – is both timely and relevant. As the Middle East pursues ambitious economic reforms, we stand at a unique juncture in our bilateral history to shepherd this partnership into a new era.
 

15th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum
The Korean government is pursuing an ambitious Fourth Industrial Revolution policy. We plan to invest 8 billion US dollars in artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and other cutting-edge areas under the Innovative Growth Engine Implementation Plan. These commitments will enhance industrial productivity and competitiveness, improve infrastructure, and resolve environmental and transportation problems. They will also create jobs that resonate with changes in work environments.  
 

Likewise, the Middle East is also prioritizing the Fourth Industrial Revolution in national policy agendas. The UAE created the world’s first AI Ministry and is currently promoting the Emirates Mars Mission scheduled for 2021. Similarly, Saudi Arabia seeks to identify new engines of growth
through its ambitious Vision 2030 and NEOM Mega City Project.

 
Both Korea and the Middle East are seeking to empower small and medium enterprises by paving the way for its well-educated youth to contribute to economic development.

 
Given these new developments on both sides, Korea hopes to expand its economic ties with the Middle East beyond infrastructure and plant construction, which have historically defined the confines of our partnership. I am certain that Korea is the optimal partner for the Middle East as it pursues the Fourth Industrial Revolution and a post-oil economy.
Korean businesses already possess a wealth of experience in working alongside their Middle East counterparts. Bloomberg Innovation Index has recognized Korea as the most innovative country in the world for the fifth consecutive year.
 

Korea supports the vision for economic reform across the Middle East, and stands ready to cooperate with our partners to help realize this vision. Korea is already pursuing nuclear cooperation with the UAE, in addition to enhancing collaboration in IT, biotechnology, health care and aerospace. With Saudi Arabia, Korea established the Saudi-Korea Vision 2030 Committee in October 2017 and is actively pursuing 40 cooperation projects across five key areas, with particular focus on promoting smart infrastructure projects in the Kingdom.
 

Ladies and gentlemen,
 

Our enduring partnership matters so much. As participants of this Forum, we all have a responsibility to help bring our peoples and regions even closer together in the new era. I believe that now is the time to reflect on what future partnership between the Middle East and Korea should be shaped in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I hope today’s discussion will lead to some concrete answers on this question.
 

Before I leave, please allow me to make a few points.
 

The first point I would like to make is that Korea's commitment to this important region will continue to remain unwavering and rock solid in the new era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. President Moon Jae-in has chosen the Middle East as a core region for enhancing Korea's diplomatic and economic engagement. He became the first Korean president to visit the Middle East in his first year in office, when he came here last March.
 

My second point is that both Korea and the Middle East should work together to enable themselves to readily ride the wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of their technological capacities. Both sides should explore opportunities to work together to strengthen and expand research involving top universities and think tanks.
 

The Korean government is planning to create the Korea-UAE Joint R&D Center in 2019, in an effort to help identify joint collaborative opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We hope that the Center will serve as a foundation for Korea’s engagement with not only the UAE, but also with the wider Middle East region.
 

Already, two top-ranked technical schools – the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Khalifa University – are working together in cutting-edge areas such as bio-medical engineering, robotics, and material science. These universities recently formalized their partnership with an MOU, coinciding with President Moon’s visit to the UAE, under which they will join efforts to train nuclear scientists. We hope that such successful partnerships will prompt other leading institutions in our regions to expand outreach efforts to each other.
 

My third point is that while institutions must play integral roles in bringing our regions closer together, true partnerships can emerge only through continuous people-to-people engagement at every level.  The enhanced understanding among people about each other is the foundation for the advanced partnership. This is also true in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
 

Indeed, cultural and people-to-people exchanges between Korea and the Middle East is flourishing, with 3,500 students from the Middle East currently studying in Korea. Islam and Middle Eastern culture are increasingly popular among Koreans while Arabic language acquisition among high school and college students is also rising. A special exhibition titled Roads of Arabia, held at the National Museum of Korea in 2017, drew more than 120 thousand visitors, many of them families and students.
 

To support all this, I believe that the Korea-Arab Society – an excellent channel for cultural exchange between Korea and the Middle East – has a great role to play.  The annual Korea-Arab Friendship Caravan and the Arab Cultural Festival, as well as other exchange programs organized by the Society have been, and continue to be, central to promoting our cultures to each other.
 

Before I wrap up my remarks, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to reiterate my sincere hope that this Forum will provide us with an important opportunity to come up with a set of concrete suggestions to translate our strengths into institutionalized actions that will upgrade our partnership in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To this end, a joint study program that links our best institutions on each side could be explored to help us identify further areas for cooperation and develop a new mode of cooperation.
 

Thank you very much.
Shukran.
                                                          /End/