Title: Korea Trade and Industrial Policy: System Exporter in New Economy
[Prepared by: Sungyong In]

Presentation Date: December 11, 2015
Speaker: Mr. Chang Kyu Kim

Summary Notes:

Mr. Chang Kyu Kim, Minister-Counselor for Trade, Industry and Energy at Embassy of the Republic of Korea, presented on a topic, titled “Korea Trade and Industrial Policy: System Exporter in New Economy,” covering a few recent examples, among others. This was a follow-up presentation to his last month’s talk on Korea Trade and Industrial Policy.

In this month’s short talk, Mr. Kim presented three examples of how Korea is becoming a system exporter in the new economy, for example, Sugil natural gas project in Uzbek, Barakah nuclear power plant project in UAE, and digital hospital project in Saudi Arabia.

In Uzbek, Korean and Uzbeck government and private sector companies worked together to build plants and facilities to develop Uzbek’s natural resources, such as natural gas (“Sugil natural gas project”). The Sugil project involved a joint construction of a major Uzbek gas processing plant and its regional natural gas development. For the project, a Korean consortium was first formed in 2007, and a joint venture with Uzbeck government owned company, e.g., Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, was established to build and operate plants and facilities for the production and sales of natural gas and chemical products, which have been have been completed in September of 2015.

In the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Korean and UAE government and private sector companies are working together to build four nuclear power plants in the Barakah region. A Korean consortium will build four commercial nuclear power reactors by 2020, and the project has been ahead of its schedule. The consortium will lead the effort to build, commission and fuel loads of the four nuclear power plants, and jointly operate the nuclear power plants for 60 years. About 15,300 local people as well as about 2,300 Koreans are currently working in the field to build the nuclear power plants.

In Saudi Arabia, Korean and Saudi Arabia government and private sector companies are working together to build “IT Converged Digital Hospitals” in Saudi Arabia, which will upgrade and transform national health care infrastructure of Saudi Arabia into the highly advanced one, leveraging Korea’s information technology (IT), medical expertise and experiences in operating and maintaining its efficient, cost-effective health care systems. IT Converged Digital Hospitals are highly efficient hospitals with integrated IT systems, designed to provide high-quality, low-cost medical care services to people through health care centers and public hospitals in the region.

In all three examples, Korea has undertaken these joint collaborative efforts with other countries, to export advanced technology systems, knowledge, services and how-knows, and transfer state-of-the-art technology as well as experiences, which will enable the other countries to adopt the imported technology to their local environments and further develop them on their own growth and benefits.