South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu met on Friday with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih in Seoul, the South Korean ministry said.
Discussions focused on expanding bilateral cooperation in energy and industry in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, the ministry said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
In addition to the energy sector, they agreed to form a bilateral working group to develop Saudi Arabia's auto industry and host a bio investor forum to help Korean companies make inroads into the Kingdom, the ministry said.
Falih said he was “optimistic” about South Korea being shortlisted to build nuclear power plants for the Kingdom.
He told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event in Seoul that South Korea could expect a “good result” when asked about outcome of bidding on the project, without going into details.
Paik also said during his meeting with Falih that he expects his government to win the bid to build the nuclear power plant and to cooperate on building new small or medium-sized reactors.
Saudi Arabia considers South Korea a partner country in its bid to reduce its dependence on oil exports.
The two ministers agreed to hold a second meeting for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 joint committee at the end of this year.
The first meeting was held in October 2017.
