Nuclear link just the latest in UAE-South Korea ties

BEIJING // The Dh75 billion agreement for a South Korean-led consortium to build four nuclear power plants in the UAE may have grabbed the headlines, but the relationship between the countries is strengthening in myriad ways aside from energy.

Multiple industrial sectors, ranging from defence to health care and human resources, are seeing new tie-ups between the countries, while educational and cultural links are being forged to augment economic ties. Even before the consortium headed by the Korea Electric Power Co (Kepco) was chosen to help the UAE develop its peaceful nuclear power programme, the UAE and South Korea had a deep-rooted economic interdependence.

The UAE is the second-largest supplier of oil to the Far East nation, while in the opposite direction the Emirates is the second-largest importer of South Korean products in the Middle East. Last year, companies from South Korea won contracts worth more than Dh117.5bn (US$32bn) in the UAE, and trade between the nations jumped 43 per cent, just as business with other major trading partners, such as China, fell back because of the global recession.

Jeong-Min Seo, a professor of Middle East politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said there were many reasons why the UAE and South Korea fitted well as partners. "We have similar historical backgrounds. The UAE has experienced a colonial period and so has South Korea," said Mr Seo, who lived in the Middle East for 12 years and has been to the UAE more than 40 times. "Korea is a newly developed country - we have 30 to 40 years' experience of economic and technological development, and the UAE is [also] relatively speaking a new country."

Beyond this, he said there is a "similar value system", a concern for the preservation of traditional "ethics and manners", that binds the countries. Leadership at the highest levels have cemented the relationship. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, has made two visits to South Korea, the most recent in May, when he met the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak.

During the visit, Sheikh Mohammed spoke of the importance of "activating economic and investment partnerships in new sectors" and of the "great strategic shifts" in the ties between the countries. In recent years, South Korean companies have become increasingly successful when bidding for large-value contracts in the Emirates. This year, four South Korean firms, including Samsung, won contracts worth a total of Dh35.4bn as part of the expansion of Abu Dhabi's largest oil refinery at Ruwais. In April, Samsung was awarded a Dh5.5bn contract by the Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co.

In one of the UAE's most prestigious construction projects, Samsung was the main contractor in the building of Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, in Dubai. South Korean construction companies, which have been active in the Middle East since the 1970s, are also involved in a host of other major building projects in the country. Construction firms from South Korea are hoping to win contracts for high-profile forthcoming projects such as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co's new headquarters, Zayed National Museum and the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Ben Simpfendorfer, a Hong Kong-based economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland who specialises in relations between the Middle East and East Asia, said South Korea was "increasingly challenged" by Chinese firms when it came to winning construction contracts. But he said the smaller nation was proving adept at winning business in industries such as vehicle manufacturing - Hyundai and Kia vehicles are common on UAE roads - and electronics. Among the more than 120 South Korean companies active in the UAE, IT ranks alongside heavy industry as the main fields they operate in.

This wealth of technological expertise made South Korea an ideal partner to the UAE, according to Behzah Shahandeh, also a Middle East politics professor at Seoul's Hankuk University. The smaller East Asian nation could offer much expertise that China, with which the UAE is also developing stronger ties, could not. The UAE "needs a partner more advanced than they are," Mr Shahandeh said. "Definitely [South Korea] could be a partner for the UAE for other industries.

"There is this trust among the UAE and South Korea. The synergy between the two countries is becoming very important." Moving closer to South Korea makes sense for the UAE, Mr Shahandeh said, because, like the Emirates, it is a close US ally. Other major joint projects in progress or set to be announced include a preliminary agreement to build offshore support vessels signed by Abu Dhabi Ship Building, based in Musaffah, and South Korea's STX Offshore and Shipbuilding. In May, the UAE agreed to purchase more than half a million dollars' worth of K11 Airburst assault rifles from South Korea, making the Emirates the first foreign customer for the weapon, which includes a 20mm grenade launcher.

Analysts said the deal showed the UAE was sensibly diversifying its defence supply base, reducing reliance purely on western manufacturers. There could be further defence agreements to come, with South Korean manufacturers probablly bidding to supply the UAE with military land vehicles. Personnel is another field where ties are growing, with Emirates Advanced Investments having signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-owned but separately run Human Resources Development Service of Korea that is likely to see South Korea provide staff to the UAE in areas including health care and aircraft maintenance.

Co-operation has extended to education, with the Sejong Institute, a South Korean university, set to launch a branch in the UAE this year. Khalifa University, which has branches in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, has launched a partnership with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology that will be crucial in helping to train Emiratis to work on the nuclear programme. Also, several dozen students from the UAE's Institutes of Applied Technology have been in Seoul this summer as part of an internship programme run by Kepco in collaboration with Enec.

To add to the economic links, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage's translation service, Kalima, recently agreed to translate 10 books from Korean into Arabic, while the Korea Literature Translation Institute said it would translate volumes published by Adach into Korean. @Email:dbardsley@thenational.ae