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| Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, right, has a conversation with the heads of major Korean companies to discuss business cooperation in the Kingdom at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, Thursday. From left are Kim Dong-kwan, vice chairman of Hanwha Solutions, Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics and Crown Prince Mohammed. Screen capture photo from Saudi Arabian state media SPA homepage |
By Kim Hyun-bin
The heads of Korea's top business groups gathered at Lotte Hotel Seoul, Thursday afternoon, to meet Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and seek more business opportunities in the $500 billion Neom smart city project in the Middle Eastern country, industry officials said Thursday.
The crown prince arrived in Seoul early Thursday and held a tea meeting for one and a half hours with the chiefs of Korea's eight major conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Initially, the heads of four major conglomerates _ Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, and Hanwha Solutions Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan _ were invited. But the list was expanded later to include CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won, DL Group Chairman Lee Hae-wook, and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group CEO Chung Ki-sun.
After the meeting, the HHI Group CEO told reporters, "Since we have been engaged in various types of business in the past, we agreed to look into future opportunities together."
Neom is a mega project to build a smart city in an area 44 times the size of Seoul, and a wide range of business opportunities is expected to open up in areas such as urban infrastructure, information technology (IT), and energy.
The crown prince is said to be searching for a wide range of companies to handle various projects in the smart city.
"In addition to the construction industry, Korea has global competitiveness in various fields such as information and communication technology (ICT), transportation, bio, and solar power, which are essential for the creation of smart cities, so it seems that Saudi Arabia is showing interest," an industry official said.
The mega project was said to be the main topic of discussion between the crown prince and the heads of the major business groups. Samsung Group is expected to seek orders for buildings, homes and plants for the mega project, which will be handled by affiliate Samsung C&T.
Under a consortium with Hyundai E&C, Samsung C&T already won a 2 trillion won order for an underground tunnel project of "The Line" or a smart, linear city under construction in Neom.
Hyundai Motor Group has been pushing for various future growth engines such as eco-friendly smart cities, robotics UAM, and hydrogen mobility businesses, which could create synergy with the Neom project and open opportunities for cooperation. Also, Hanwha has been looking to win more deals from the Saudi government in areas such as solar power and urban air mobility (UAM), which are the group's key business areas.
The heads of Doosan Group, DL Group, CJ Group, and HHI Group reportedly expressed their intent to play larger roles in the Neom project and other development plans in Saudi Arabia related to nuclear power plants and shipbuilding.
