Press Release>> 

1. Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 4 and 5, during which he met with Minister of Economy and Planning Mohamed Al Towaijri and acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Jamal Aqeel to discuss the way forward for the Republic of Korea-Saudi relations and main bilateral issues.

2. In his meeting with Minister of Economy and Planning Mohamed Al Towaijri, Vice Minister Lim, calling the ROK-Saudi Arabia relations the most successful case of cooperation between the Middle East and Asia, and the two countries naturally fit partners, expressed hope that building on such mutually beneficial cooperation, the ROK will take an active part in the ongoing Saudi efforts to implement its “Vision 2030” and thereby take the bilateral cooperative ties a notch higher.

※Vision 2030 is a long-term economic reform plan that Saudi Arabia has been implementing since 2016 to seek industrial diversification and less dependence on oil under the motto of “a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation.”

° Vice Minister Lim asked that the Saudi government continuously pay attention to and cooperate so as to achieve tangible results from various cooperation projects, which the two countries had agreed to work together on at the 18^th meeting of the ROK-Saudi joint committee in 2017. Meanwhile, Minister Al Towaijri, calling the ROK one of Saudi’s partners for strategic cooperation for the latter’s economic development, voiced hope that the two countries will further develop the bilateral relationship into a mutually contributive and beneficial one.

3. Vice Minister Lim and acting Foreign Minister Jamal Aqeel, taking note of the bilateral relations across the board, agreed to promote bilateral communication and people-to-people exchanges, in particular, and to this end, to work together toward an early conclusion of “a memorandum of understanding on the simplification of visa procedures.”

4. Vice Minister Lim met with representatives of Korean enterprises operating in Saudi Arabia, which include Doosan Heavy Industries, Samsung Construction & Trading Corporation, and POSCO Engineering & Construction,  to learn about their operations and challenges. He also met with foreign diplomats to Saudi Arabia for an exchange of views on the situation in the Middle Eastern country and its economic policy direction.

5. Vice Minister Lim’s visit to Saudi Arabia served as a significant opportunity to discuss ways to achieve more substantial progress in economic cooperation with the ROK’s top cooperative partner in the Middle East.

* unofficial translation