외교부

“GCC Days”에서는 정치․경제․사회․문화 등 다양한 분야의 전문가들을 초청하여 발표 및 토의를 진행하고 사진전 등 전시회를 개최합니다.

김종훈 본부장의 동 포럼 축사는 아래와 같습니다.

Congratulatory Remarks
by H.E. Jong-Hoon Kim
Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea
at 2011 GCC Days in Seoul
Session 3
Economic and Trade Cooperation between
the Republic of Korea and the GCC Countries

1. Introduction

Al-Salam-Alaikum!

Your Excellency Abdulrahman Bin-Hamed Al-Attiyah, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),
Your Excellencies Ambassadors of the GCC member countries in Seoul.
Dr. Chang Hyun-sik, Vice-President of KOICA,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to begin by welcoming our colleagues and friends from the GCC member states and by extending my congratulations on hosting this valuable session of the “2011 GCC Days in Seoul.” Held for the first time in Asia, the forum will be an excellent opportunity to enhance the exchanges between political and business leaders of Korea and the GCC countries and thus to lay a good foundation for mutual understanding and networking.
Today’s session is important and timely, as Korea’s economy is recovering quickly from the 2008 financial crisis and is now back on track to stable growth while the GCC countries are also in the midst of high acceleration towards a more advanced and complex economy. The potential outcome of economic cooperation between such vibrant partners will be great indeed.

Nonetheless, this kind of potential will not be realized without more active engagement from both sides. Our common task for this session, therefore, is to come up with ways that Korea and the GCC countries can further engage ourselves to reap the full benefits of substantial cooperation.

2. Korean Economy

When the world experienced difficulties due to the financial crisis two years ago, Korea was not an exception. We, however, were able to make a quick recovery and successfully achieved a remarkable economic growth rate of over 6 percent last year.

Our export volume last year reached 467.4 billion dollars, which was the seventh largest in the world. Korea’s import also increased by almost 32 percent and reached a record of 425.7 billion dollars. Overall, Korea ranked ninth in the world last year with a total trade volume of 893.1 billion dollars.

Prospects for Korean businesses is all the brighter. Last year, we finalized FTA negotiations with the U.S. and officially signed the FTA with the EU. Once these Agreements are ratified and enter into force, Korean businesses will have significantly enhanced access to the world’s largest markets.

Since 2003, Korea has pursued an active free trade policy in an effort to support sustainable economic growth. We have so far concluded eight FTAs, and among them, five FTAs, namely, those with Chile, EFTA, Singapore, ASEAN and India have entered into force.

 
Furthermore, Korea is currently under negotiations with such important trading partners as Australia, Colombia, Turkey, Canada, and of course with the GCC. I believe that the Korea-GCC FTA will certainly be a win-win deal and a good way to bring mutual benefits. I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your support to accelerate an early conclusion of the on-going talks between Korea and the GCC for free trade.

Foreign direct investment to Korea in 2010 also rose by 12.1 percent, reaching 12.9 billion dollars, the highest in ten years. This is an especially significant achievement considering that global FDI slowed down throughout out last year.

3. Korea-GCC Economic Relations

Having said that, I would now like to look into what the future holds for Korea and the GCC countries.

 
Korea has always maintained strong relations with all the GCC member countries. The initial phase of our cooperation largely began when Korean companies joined the region’s construction boom during the 1970s and ‘80s. Many Korean engineers and workers worked assiduously days and nights on many construction sites in the Middle East, contributing to the economic development of the region. This in turn, brought benefits to Korea, also, in formulating the capital needed to build technology-intensive industries.

Cooperation between us in the area of constructing infrastructures is still lively in the Gulf region. Doosan Heavy Industries is building the largest desalination plant in the world in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf’s first nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates will be built through cooperation with Korea. Korean companies are currently working with the Bahrain Government to build the region’s first high-tech wastewater treatment plant and sewage conveyance system. These are only a few examples.

Korea relies a great deal on the GCC’s energy resources. Last year, 61 percent of the crude oil and 46 percent of the gas that Korea imported were from the GCC countries.

I believe the scope of cooperation will widen further in the future as the GCC economies are carrying out intensive investments in infrastructure, human resources development, and renewable energy as means to build a more advanced, sustainable, and balanced economy.

Korea’s know-how and technological expertise in these key areas such as desalination, nuclear energy, and complex and sophisticated infrastructure-building will undoubtedly be valuable to the GCC countries. We are ready to work together as a dream team to make GCC development goals a reality.

 
Now that we have accumulated experiences of cooperation in many fields, I believe now is the time for us to expand our cooperation from bilateral level to joint ventures in third countries. When we combine technological expertise of Korea and financing capability of the GCC countries with coordinated business strategies, I believe a great deal of opportunities will be open for us in new emerging markets.

It is evident that there is already a strong interdependence underlying economic and trade relations between Korea and the GCC countries. Therefore, it will be exciting to discuss how we can further engage ourselves so that both parties keep marching towards prosperity in the years to come.

4. Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen,

I see in the program that today’s session is full of important topics, tackling such area as trade, investment, manufacturing, and energy.

I am confident that the results of today’s session will not merely be a valuable reference for both Koreans and the participants from GCC countries, but a boost to further economic and trade partnership between Korea and the GCC countries.

Shukran Jazilan!
Illal-liqa