Lebanese Republic 
Opening of the fourth Lebanese- Korean Business Forum
Minister Raed Khoury: A promising history of the relation with South Korea
The fourth Lebanese- Korean Business Forum was held in the Chamber of Beirut and Mount-Lebanon headquarter and organized with the cooperation of the South Korean Embassy in Lebanon. The Forum was attended by the Minister of Economy and Trade Raed Khoury, the South Korean Ambassador to Lebanon Young Man Lee, President of the Federation of Lebanese Chambers; Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut & Mount Lebanon Mohammad Choucair in addition to a large number of head of bodies, economic actors and businessmen as well the Korean trade delegation constituted of 30 businessmen.
The Forum explored various economic issues, in particular; ways to promote the economic ties and to foster the cooperation with the private sector in both countries. The Forum also included two different demonstrations on the investment’ differential advantages in both Lebanon and Korea. At the end of the Forum, bilateral business meetings took place between the Lebanese and Korean to discuss the possibility of creating business partnerships in various fields.
Choucair
At the beginning, Choucair welcomed the Korean delegation stating that “this fourth forum emphasizes on the determination and the common will to make progress on the Lebanese-Korean economic relations”. He added that “common interests may be achieved by establishing appropriate balance between the economic ties of both countries. However, figures show that the trade balance tends to be in favor of Korea.”
Furthermore, he stressed on “ the necessity of filling this huge gap in the trade balance, by increasing the Lebanese exports to Korea, especially the lebanese goods of high standards that the Korean market is in need, such as jewelry, clothes, wine, honey and others”. In addition, Choucair brought to attention that “Lebanon is currently witnessing a promising new era based on the political and security stability period he is entering, the thing that enables the government to present large-scale projects for the development of Lebanon and its infrastructure”. In this regard, he pointed out: “Lebanon benefits today of 4 billion US dollars ready to be invested in the infrastructure sector, to be introduced in 2018. In addition, the government is preparing for “Paris IV” donor conference for Lebanon to collect around 18 billion US dollars from soft loans in order to develop all the lebanese infrastructures within a period of ten years. Moreover, it is no doubt that Lebanon will take major part in the reconstruction of Syria while the oil exploration will be achieved in parallel with the infrastructure construction in this sector”, assuring that “there is a possibility to allow to Korean companies to enter into partnership with the lebanese private sector for this purpose”.
The Korean Ambassador
The Korean Ambassador expressed his wish to “ have fruitful discussions to open new prospects for the economic and trade relations and boost the partnership between the two countries, stressing that this forum is taking place in an important stage in Lebanon whereof both parties stressed on Lebanon’s security and stability to provide reassurance for the Korean businessmen and encourage them to make plans for new projects”.
In addition, he pointed out that “ the Korean experts may assist Lebanon whether in the infrastructure or the water and electricity sectors as well as the general trade between the two countries may witness a significant increase to provide the appropriate balance of the trade balance”.
Khoury
In his turn, Minister Khoury made a speech stating that “the relation history between Lebanon and Korea is promising; consequently, there is a strong possibility to establish strong and lasting partnership”. He also pointed out that “the Ministry of Economy and Trade focuses its attention on the need to balance the trade flows with both the new and the current markets. For this purpose, Lebanon is interested in scaling up its exports to South Korea, in particular the wine and olive oil, through participation in the upcoming trade fairs to be held in South Korea”.
In this regard, he pointed out that “the South Korean imports improved from low quality goods to high quality products, such as cars, electric accumulators, televisions and phones” in addition to “the expansion of the Korean institutional and technical support programs provided to Lebanon (in addition to the support provided to Lebanon Recovery Fund) and stressing on the need to “establish a Lebanese-Korean Business Council that plays a vital and decisive role in the elaboration and implementation of strategic plans in order to boost the Lebanese-Korean trade relations”.
At the end, Minister Khoury emphasized that “the role of our government lies in adopting necessary steps to strengthen the cooperation with South Korea and boost the infrastructure exchange, in partnership with the private sector” stating that “Lebanon’s geographic location, the lebanese diaspora and Lebanon’s open and liberal economy constitute the main factors that turn Lebanon into a famous market for the Korean products and an ideal portal for the Middle East region”.
