South Korea keen to expand trade ties with Oman

Muscat, The Gulf Observer: A top South Korean official has expressed hope in strengthening the trade ties between the Sultanate of Oman and South Korea in the future.

In an exclusive chat with Times of Oman in South Korea during the visit of delegates of the World Journalists Congress, Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, said: “Oman and South Korea share a strong bond and have excellent trade relations.

“We are happy with the existing economic ties but there is ample scope for expanding the trade ties between the two countries as more and more opportunities grow in both the nations.”

The former Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea was speaking to Times of Oman at an official reception hosted for journalists from across 50 nations at the Governor’s house.

The 36th governor of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea’s most populous province, has been at the forefront of efforts to attract investments to the province and actively promote international trade relations.

Dong-yeon, who is also a former South Korean finance minister, said that “cooperation in green energy” could be one of the areas for collaboration between Oman and South Korea.

Gyeonggi Province is the nation’s largest local autonomous region. Several types of industrial environments for high-tech and traditional industries, large corporations and SMEs feature in the province. It is the “Opportunity Capital” and is a microcosm of South Korea.

The governor said: “The province has attracted investments from the world’s top four semiconductor equipment companies and is a hub of new growth industries such as IT, biotech, mobility, AI and big data.”

Dong-yeon said that Oman and South Korea share common concerns on the climate crisis and are determined to overcome it.

“We are happy to share our expertise in green energy with Oman as we realise that the future is about carbon neutrality and the focus grows on renewable energy. We will work together for a sustainable future,” said the top South Korean official.

Responding to the climate crisis, the province has created a carbon-neutral fund to support low-carbon technologies so as to foster the growth of a carbon-neutral industrial ecosystem in the province.

The province has implemented ‘basic ordinance on carbon neutrality and Green growth’ among other initiatives.

Gyeonggi Province has also introduced renewable energy into public buildings and public environmental facilities and is building infrastructure for the hydrogen economy, including hydrogen supply, hydrogen transportation and the hydrogen city. Among the other measures that the province has adopted are expansion of multi-use container utilisation programmes to reduce plastic waste and curb fine dust emissions at workplaces by supporting improvement of air pollution control facilities at small businesses.