Hong Kong/Seoul
CNN
—
South Korea’s chief is capping off a whirlwind week, after securing tens of billions of {dollars} in funding from the Center East and vowing to have his nation play a extra necessary position in revitalizing worldwide provide chains.
On Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol introduced that the United Arab Emirates had pledged a staggering $30 billion in funding within the Asian nation.
The information got here after the leaders of the 2 nations held talks in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, in a landmark journey that marked the first-ever state go to to the UAE by a South Korean president, based on a press release from Yoon’s workplace.
The funding goals to extend cooperation within the fields of nuclear, hydrogen and photo voltaic vitality, in addition to protection, together with an settlement to type a “particular strategic partnership” on the highest degree, the assertion mentioned.
Yoon was joined within the area by a delegation of Korean tycoons, together with the billionaire leaders of Samsung, Hyundai Motors
(HYMTF) and SK Group. In complete, representatives from roughly 100 South Korean firms traveled with the president, based on his workplace.
In the course of the four-day go to, two dozen agreements price $6.1 billion overlaying nuclear energy, protection and inexperienced vitality had been signed by companies from the 2 sides, based on the South Korean authorities.
Some South Korean companies additionally agreed to construct farms for tomatoes and strawberries within the UAE, a rustic that depends closely on imports of agricultural merchandise.
The flurry of offers got here simply days earlier than Yoon addressed the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, the place he mentioned the significance of repairing international provide chains.
“Essentially the most pressing activity of our time is to strengthen the provision chain’s resilience primarily based on reciprocal solidarity,” he mentioned in a speech Thursday, noting current disruptions within the provides of meals, vitality, pc chips, vaccines and prescribed drugs throughout the globe.
“The pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, the rivalry for technological hegemony, and the weakening multilateral commerce system have led to the fragmentation of the worldwide provide chain, inflicting it to reshape,” Yoon continued, including that the warfare in Ukraine had exacerbated the scenario.
The president mentioned the problem had led to a “pattern of bloc-forming amongst international locations,” with worldwide cooperation “more and more considered a package deal deal.”
“Increase partitions and intensifying protectionism can’t be the best reply,” Yoon added.
Going ahead, South Korea “will probably be a key accomplice within the international provide chain,” utilizing its experience in sectors comparable to semiconductors and steel-making to assist stabilize provide chains, he pledged. “We’ll align and cooperate with mutually trusted international locations.”
