SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥� South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hoped for greater cooperation with Saudi Arabia 鈥� including on its $500 billion futuristic desert city project 鈥� as he met the kingdom鈥檚 powerful crown prince Thursday, Seoul officials said.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman flew to South Korea earlier Thursday for talks with Yoon and business tycoons in his first visit to South Korea since June 2019.
During talks attended by senior officials from both countries, Yoon said he hopes that South Korean companies will participate in megaprojects in Saudi Arabia such as planned along the kingdom鈥檚 Red Sea coast, Yoon鈥檚 office in a statement.
Yoon also wanted the two countries to cooperate on defense industries and the development of hydrogen and other new energies and promote tourism and cultural exchanges, the statement said. Prince Mohammed said he wants to drastically expand bilateral cooperation on the areas of and defense industries, Yoon鈥檚 office said.
The prince鈥檚 trip to South Korea spawned hopes that South Korean companies鈥� active participations in the Neom city project would greatly invigorate the country鈥檚 economy, like a previous construction boom in the Middle East backed up South Korea鈥檚 rapid economic rise in the 1970s.
鈥淭here are political and geopolitical risks in Middle East and it鈥檚 true that there are questions about the Neom city project. 鈥� But the Neom city can still be a new breakthrough for the South Korean economy,鈥� the Maeil Business newspaper said Wednesday in an editorial. 鈥淭he (South Korean) government must support a possible second Middle East boom by reforming regulations.鈥�
The Neom project envisions flying cars and a 170-kilometer (105-mile) -long, zero-carbon emissions city that鈥檚 entirely enclosed and powered by Artificial Intelligence. In 2017, when Prince Mohammed announced plans to build the city, he said that 鈥渢his will be a place for the dreamers of the world.鈥�
Some observers say Prince Mohammed hopes the city will become a skyline-studded Saudi version of Dubai that will offer the kingdom jobs and cement . It also would reframe a rule so far colored by the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the kingdom鈥檚 .
鈥淪ome people say the idea of the Neom city project is too utopian and doubt whether it can be really established,鈥� said Paik Seunghoon, principal researcher at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 one of the projects that Prince (Mohammed) is pushing hard so that he will try to have (the Neom project) running to some extent.鈥�
During the prince鈥檚 visit, South Korean companies signed more than 20 memorandums of understanding with their Saudi counterparts, non-binding contracts that are mostly about South Korean investments in Saudi Arabia, according to South Korean officials.
Paik said Saudi Arabia has signed similar non-binding deals with many other foreign companies and that the South Korean announcement Thursday lacked substance. But he still viewed them as a meaningful first step in the two countries' cooperation in such projects.
鈥淚 highly appraise (today's development). It鈥檚 like we just did our first shoveling" in a construction project, Paik said. 鈥淢ost importantly, the leaders of the two countries met and agreed to push forward with something. And this shouldn鈥檛 be the end.鈥�
Joo Won, deputy director at the Seoul-based Hyundai Research Institute, noted that there have been 鈥渕ore negative views toward the project鈥� than positive ones.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of financial resources. Saudi Arabia needs money to build such a city. During the period of high oil prices like these days, they can afford it. But oil prices would go down one day and the project could stop,鈥� Joo said.
Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press
