President Park Geun-hye met with the CEOs of leading international companies Qualcomm, Saudi Aramco and Siemens on the sidelines of the 44th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on January 22 in Davos, Switzerland. During the meetings, she encouraged the business leaders to expand their investments in Korea and she emphasized the need to cooperate with business.

President Park described her government’s efforts to make Korea a friendly environment for overseas investment. She explained Korea’s strengths as an ideal investment destination, mentioning the country’s network of free trade agreements with major economies around the world such as the EU and ASEAN.

President Park first met with the executive chairman of the Board of Directors at Qualcomm, Paul E. Jacobs, to discuss ways to expand trade and investment. The president explained Korea’s efforts to develop the creative industries and revitalize its economy, and asked Qualcomm to increase its investment here. She also called on the U.S. financial industry to make it easier for Korea and the United States to cooperate on information and communications technology (ICT).


During her meeting with Saudi Aramco President and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih, President Park explained to the firm the benefits of Korea’s Northeast Asia oil hub project. She discussed with the Saudi Aramco CEO the stability of the world’s oil supply and Korean firms’ participation in constructing oil refineries. President Park praised Saudi Aramco’s investment through the Korean petroleum and oil refinery company S-Oil in the oil tanker terminal in the southeastern port city of Ulsan. Finally, she encouraged the business leader to increase his firm’s investment in Korea by participating in the country’s Northeast Asia oil hub.

In meeting with Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, President Park explained to him the benefits of increasing his firm’s investment in Korea’s ocean-based industrial plant construction sector. She highly valued Siemens’ decision to build its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Korea and encouraged the firm to make further investments in the country. Cheong Wa Dae explained that the president asked the Siemens CEO to make active investments in the ocean-based industrial plant sector, in which Korea holds a leading edge, and cooperate with Korean firms in this regard as Siemens is highly interested in oil and gas exploration.



Cheong Wa Dae said that the president’s meetings with global CEOs focused on attracting overseas investments into Korea and on specific areas in which Korean firms hold prowess, such as ICT, energy and ocean-based plants, rather than just attracting investments in passive manner.

By Wi Tack-whan, Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writers
whan23@korea.kr