Minister Lee Young meets with Saudi Investment Minister to discuss cooperation for startup development

Minister Lee Young, Ministry of SMEs and Startups [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] On the 10th, Lee Young, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, held a meeting with Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia.

The meeting took place at the 'COMEUP 2022' event, a global startup festival held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul.

During the meeting, Minister Lee introduced the current status of startups and venture companies in Korea and related policies to Minister Khalid Al-Falih, followed by discussions on cooperation measures for the development of startups in both countries.

Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has established 'Vision 2030' to foster advanced and manufacturing industries and has been striving to transform its industrial structure. Since 2017, it has also promoted cooperation with Korea by operating the 'Korea-Saudi Vision 2030 Committee.'

So far, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has conducted policy exchanges on small and medium enterprises and transferred operational policies of the Korea Venture Fund within the SME subcommittee of the Korea-Saudi Vision 2030 Committee.

In this meeting, they discussed shifting the SME subcommittee’s operation from a policy exchange focus to a practical cooperation project focus.

They also exchanged opinions on ways to promote mutual growth and exchange of innovative venture and startup ecosystems through the establishment of joint venture funds between the two countries’ Korea Venture Investment Corp. (KVIC) and Saudi Venture Capital (SVC), which are the respective Korea and Saudi mother fund institutions.

Furthermore, they discussed mutual cooperation measures for startups in the gaming and entertainment sectors, which are of high interest to the Saudi side, to enter the Middle Eastern market.

After the bilateral meeting, Minister Lee and Minister Khalid Al-Falih visited the COMEUP event venue together and had time to hear directly from companies about the high competitiveness of Korean startups and the dynamism of the venture ecosystem.

Minister Lee said, "Saudi Arabia, which is promoting investment expansion and economic structural transformation to secure a growth model after de-oilization, and Korea, which has startups with high technological capabilities, can be excellent partners." He added, "As Saudi Arabia is a key partner country for startups’ overseas market entry, we will actively promote cooperation with Saudi Arabia."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.