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By Nam Hyun-woo
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| Korea's Ambassador to Bahrain Koo Hyun-mo / Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo |
"The two countries' relation is expanding from the existing field of infrastructure construction to health and medical, information and communication technology (ICT) and defense industries," Koo said during an interview with The Korea Times.
Since the establishment of the two countries' diplomatic ties in 1976, Bahrain has been "the gateway to the Gulf" for Korea, mainly because a Korean Air flight linking Seoul and Manama was the inaugural and only airline connecting Korea and the region.
Through that airway, Korean workers numbering 200,000 as of 1978 spread out to Middle East countries which launched massive projects for building bridges, ports, roads and other infrastructure.
Since then, the two countries have been developing their relationship further especially in engineering and construction.
"Several landmark places including the Diplomat Hotel in Manama and the office buildings of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities were built by Korean workers," Koo said. "Some old Bahrainis still talk of Koreans with that image of really hard-working people."
The scale of the two countries' engineering and construction ties is becoming greater.
"Currently, GS Engineering & Construction is building a liquefied natural gas terminal in Bahrain. Four Korean firms have placed bids for a $5 billion project to expand Bahrain Petroleum Company's capacity from 270,000 barrels to 380,000 barrels a day," Koo said. "There are several other engineering projects that involve Korean firms."
As well as the ongoing projects, Koo noted that Bahrain is interested in drawing Korean engineering companies for building the King Hamad Causeway, which will be the second causeway connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
He stressed, however, the Korea-Bahrain tie is transforming now, upon Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030 initiative, in which the country is seeking to reshape its economy into a knowledge-based one.
In May 2015, the Bahraini government launched its online Business Licensing Integrated System built by LG CNS.
In June, Korea's Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service exported its assessment system to Bahrain for 15.5 billion won. Bahrain seems to believe that benchmarking Korea's national health insurance review system will help it in preventing excessive health insurance claims.
In September, Korean language programs were launched at the University of Bahrain and Ahlia University.
Late last month, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding for developing cooperation in digital content and related technologies on the sidelines of a mobile game content road show in Manama. A total of 13 Korean game companies participated in the event.
Those companies also joined Technology Week Pavilion, an ICT startup exhibition held from Sept. 25 to 28 by the Amazon Web Service and Economic Development Board (EDB) of Bahrain. Koo said "Korea should pay more attention about the board."
EDB is a public agency of which the country's Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa is standing chairman. Under his leadership, the agency is drawing keen attention from across the world thanks to its proactive initiative of transforming Bahrain into a post-oil economy.
"The EDB set up its Seoul office in July to strengthen its effort to draw investment from Korea," Koo said. "What they want is more Korean ICT firms and entrepreneurs to start their businesses in Bahrain and their desire seems to be fair, given its strategic location in the region and foreign-friendly environment."
Bahrain has no corporate or other types of taxes, as well as allowing 100 percent foreign ownership of a business.
The country is 20 kilometers away from Saudi Arabia. This means that firms in Bahrain will have one of the largest markets in Middle East within their range. Also, the country is one of the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Despite those advantages, Koo picked the people of Bahrain as the most attractive factor for companies to move in or start their businesses here.
"Above all, the reason why Bahrain is attractive for expats and foreign companies is the people of the country are so friendly to foreigners and have the mindset of working hard," he said.
"Since the country has smaller oil reserves than other Middle East countries, its people do not rely heavily on oil money and have no resistance to working, which is one of the growth drivers of Asian economies such as Japan and Singapore, which hardly have natural resources but thrive now."
Koo said that the Korea-Bahrain tie will expand into the medical sector, with medical tour programs to Korea in the pipeline.
"An Air Service Agreement between Korea and Bahrain will likely come in the near future," he said. "Though the agreement is a non-binding one, it will work positively for flights between Korea and Bahrain and more Korean companies will come to Bahrain when direct flights resume."
Direct flights between Korea and Bahrain were halted in the mid 1980s after construction demand in the Middle East declined.
