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| Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, second from right, walks with Samsung C&T officials, during his visit to a Riyadh metro construction site in Saudi Arabia, Sunday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited Saudi Arabia during the Chuseok holiday to check on the group's construction site there and find new business opportunities, according to the group Sunday.
"Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh where Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T) is building a metro system," a group official said.
"This is Lee's first visit to an overseas construction site. He visited to encourage Samsung C&T employees who were working hard during the Chuseok holiday," the official added.
Samsung C&T is a member of a consortium with FCC Construccion of Spain and Alstom of France. It has been constructing three metro lines in the capital city, which will be completed by 2020.
"I would like to express my gratitude to Samsung employees who are working at the site during the Chuseok holiday. The Middle East has become a new land of opportunity in the 21st century as countries there are pursuing non-oil economies. I believe your beads of sweat will come to fruition," Lee told Samsung C&T employees.
Samsung Group has been forming close ties with Saudi Arabia as Lee, the de facto owner of the nation's largest conglomerate, invited Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to Seungjiwon, the house of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chul, during the crown prince's visit to Korea in June.
At a time when the group has been facing multiple uncertainties, the Samsung heir has been striving to cope with the challenges by increasing on-site inspections.
The de factor leader especially has utilized the country's two biggest national holiday periods ― Seollal or Lunar New Year and Chuseok ― as an opportunity to visit overseas production lines of the group or meet international figures.
During the Seollal holiday in 2014, he flew to the United States to have meetings with officials from mobile carriers there. In 2016, he met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during Seollal and had talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Chuseok holidays.
Lee paid a visit to Xian in China during this year's Seollal holidays in February to check the construction site of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor production lines there.
