Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik met with Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Sayed, Qatar's Minister of State for International Trade, on Wednesday to discuss expanding investment cooperation in advanced industries.
Kang disclosed the meeting on Facebook, saying the two sides "agreed to expand bilateral relations, which have centered on natural gas trade and orders for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, into investment cooperation in advanced industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and biotechnology."
Two weeks earlier, on the 13th, Kang had visited Qatar as a special envoy for presidential strategic economic cooperation, paying a courtesy call on Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and discussing ways to expand bilateral cooperation. "At that time, I told Emir Tamim that it was time to expand bilateral cooperation, which had been centered on the energy sector, into investment in advanced industries such as AI, and Emir Tamim promised to send a delegation immediately," Kang said.
"In fact, just two weeks later, a large delegation led by Minister of State Al Sayed and including Qatar's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and the sovereign wealth fund visited Korea," he explained. He added that "Minister Al Sayed is also a top investment expert, having served as CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, which manages a total of $580 billion and ranks eighth in the world by asset size."
"Minister Al Sayed said that meeting companies in person is most important in making investment decisions, and expressed his gratitude to the Korean government for creating opportunities to meet many advanced technology companies during this visit," Kang said. "I told him to contact me at any time, saying I would take the lead in resolving any difficulties in investing in Korea as a top priority."
Kang emphasized that "the investment fund officials who came with the Qatari delegation are reportedly conducting detailed follow-up discussions with officials from target companies," adding that "we expect examples of win-win investment cooperation between the two countries to emerge soon." He also noted that "Emir Tamim conveyed his intention to visit Korea first as soon as the situation in the Middle East stabilizes."
