Lee Jae-yong and Business Leaders Meet Today with 'Mr. Everything'

Major Group Heads Have Tea with Crown Prince Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on the 17th
Discussing Cooperation Plans for the Mega Project 'NEOM City'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Business leaders, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, will meet with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the 17th.

According to the business community, major conglomerate heads such as Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will hold a meeting combined with tea time with Crown Prince bin Salman, who is visiting Korea for a 1-night, 2-day schedule, at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, in the afternoon.

Known as "Mr. Everything," meaning "the man who can do everything," Crown Prince bin Salman is considered the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. He arrived in Korea for the first time in three years on a chartered flight the night before, right after the G20 summit.

Crown Prince bin Salman is currently leading the Saudi new city construction project "NEOM City," with a total project cost of $500 billion (approximately 660 trillion KRW). NEOM City is a mega project to build a smart city 44 times the size of Seoul and is a core project of "Saudi Vision 2030," aimed at transforming Saudi Arabia's economy and industry, which heavily depends on oil, into a high-tech manufacturing hub. It is promoted as an eco-friendly city with zero carbon emissions. It consists of the self-sufficient linear city "The Line," the advanced marine industrial complex "Oxagon," and the eco-friendly tourism complex "Trojena."

Through this visit, Crown Prince bin Salman is expected to broadly seek project contractors and explore various cooperation plans. In particular, since Chairman Lee Jae-yong has a personal friendship with Crown Prince bin Salman, it is anticipated that he will actively pursue winning contracts for the NEOM City project based on this relationship.

Samsung has already formed a consortium with Samsung C&T and Hyundai Construction to win the tunnel construction contract for "The Line" in NEOM City, and it is highly likely that they will discuss cooperation plans utilizing Samsung's artificial intelligence (AI), 5G wireless communication, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Although Chairman Lee has a trial schedule related to "accounting fraud and unfair merger" on the same day, it is reported that he submitted a non-attendance opinion to the court the day before for this meeting.

Previously, during Crown Prince bin Salman's visit three years ago, he gathered with Chairman Lee, Chairman Chung, Chairman Chey, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin at Samsung Group's guesthouse, Seungjiwon, for tea time.