Bilateral Agreements between UAE and South Korea

The third meeting of UAE-South Korea joint economic committee concluded in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi today with a call to activate all the bilateral agreements between them. The meeting, co-chaired by UAE minister of economy Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri and S.Korea's Minister of Strategy and Finance Jae Wan Bahk, renewed the resolution to further develop the relations into wider horizons in the coming phase.

The meeting was attended by senior executives from various government sectors in UAE, and discussed strategic areas of cooperation between both countries in the fields of green economy, innovation, investments, small and medium businesses, civil aviation, health care, technology and education and construction. "It was two years back that our countries met on the same platform in Korea during the 2nd Joint Economic Committee in May 2010. Since then, we have made considerable progress in our economic and trade relations, and certainly there is a feeling of accomplishment. The trade rates between our countries have reached 22 billion USD in 2010 and we are looking forward to increase these rates through effective integrated plan", said Minister Al Mansouri. "South Korea is a strategic partner for the UAE in targeting new markets in the MENA region and the world", added the minister.

The UAE appreciates the importance of expanding economic cooperation between UAE and Korea, especially in the sectors of trade, investment, industry, small and medium enterprises, financial services, petrochemicals, green economy, civil aviation, intellectual property rights, transportation, healthcare, education, telecommunication, environment, agriculture, customs cooperation, technology and IT, stressed the Minister earlier in his opening address.

South Korea is a strong and reliable partner in our efforts to position the UAE as a diversified and knowledge-based economy. Our countries have the right resources to lead innovations in technology, creativity, research and development, small and medium businesses and intellectual property rights. Both the government and private sector in the UAE look forward to an era of increased co-operation and stronger economic partnerships with South Korea, especially during the next five years, Al Mansouri emphasised.

"Not only have we managed to fulfill a number of commitments but we have also followed up on them with some remarkable cooperation initiatives. In this context, I would like to highlight the progress we achieved with the MOU on small and medium enterprises in December 2010", the minister said. He added: "Our countries have agreements in place to boost our economic partnership to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in diverse fields such as peaceful nuclear energy, renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability, information technology and communications, semi-conductors, shipbuilding and human resources development".