Seoul and Dubai’s financial hubs, SMG and DIFC, collaborate through an MoU for cross-border innovation and cooperation in financial services.
Dubai and Seoul want to promote cross-border cooperation, exchange best practises, and lead innovation in financial services. A recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the global financial centre in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA), is enabling this.
Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority, and Kim Tae-Kyun, Deputy Mayor of Seoul and Director of Economic Policy, SMG, signed the agreement. The future of finance and potential for mutual progress were also discussed in a meeting with Oh Se-Hoon, the mayor of Seoul; Arif Amiri, chief executive officer, DIFC Authority; and Mohammad AlBlooshi, chief executive officer, DIFC Innovation Hub.
During the meeting, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-Hoon stated, “We hope to create more win-win opportunities through enhanced collaboration between the two countries.”
Deputy Mayor of Seoul and Director of Economic Policy at SMG, Kim Tae-Kyun, spoke at the agreement’s signing and stated: “We will collaborate with DIFC, the leading financial centre in the UAE, and Yeouido, the leading financial centre in Korea, to help source capital and support our start-ups expand to the Middle East, amid higher interest from Middle Eastern countries in the Korean market.”
“Yeouido Financial Centre in Seoul shares DIFC’s core objective of fostering next-generation financial innovation to unlock areas of common economic interest,” stated Arif Amiri, chief executive officer of the DIFC Authority. By way of this Memorandum of Understanding with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, we are offering Dubai and Seoul a new framework for cooperation. In the end, our goal is to expand both financial ecosystems as we collaborate to shape the financial landscape of the future.
Getting ready for victory
Within a comprehensive framework, the Memorandum of Understanding establishes a distinct path for exchanging optimal methodologies about the prospects of finance, the functioning of global financial hubs, and the advancement of cross-border startup initiatives. Additionally, it offers chances for business development for start-ups and scale-ups in both countries, as well as the exchange of start-up delegations for significant regional events.
The partnership is further supported by a strategic focus on helping start-ups in South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in order to create similar interests between DIFC and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Yeouido Financial Centre in Seoul, and Seoul Business Agency. In accordance with the terms of the MoU, DIFC would also encourage South Korean businesses looking to expand, thereby accelerating the worldwide growth of start-ups and entrepreneurs.
As part of a group from the United Arab Emirates headed by His Excellency Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, the Minister of Economy, the senior executives of DIFC were also in South Korea to attend the COMEUP Global Startup Festival on behalf of the UAE.
