– KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center, Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait - Collaborating with Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) to hold the '4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum'
– Growing demand and interest in smart farm technology due to climatic conditions in Kuwait and agricultural modernization policy of the Kuwait Agricultural and Fisheries Administration (PAAF)
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait (Ambassador Jeong Byeong-ha) and KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center (Director Chang-seok Hong), together with the Korea Housing and Land Corporation Kuwait Branch (LH), will be working with the Kuwait Agricultural and Fisheries Administration (PAAF), the Agricultural Association (Kuwaiti Farmers Federation), and the Housing Welfare Administration (PAHW) on the 6th of this month. ) and held the 'Korea-Kuwait Smart City (Smart Farm Center) Forum'.
<The 4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum Poster>
<The 4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum Resources>
[ 4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum (Subtitle: Focusing on Smart Farm) Overview ]
▪Date: 2021 December 6 (Mon) 10:00 ~ 14:00
▪Venue: Kuwait Four Seasons Hotel
▪Organizer/Organizer/Collaboration: KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center / Embassy of your country / Korea Land and Housing Corporation
▪Scale: 100 speakers and attendees
The Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum, held for the fourth time this year, has been held every year except for 4, which was canceled due to COVID-2017 after Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) won the Kuwait South Saad Al-Abdullah new city design project in 19. This is a bilateral cooperation event that has been promoted regularly. This year, in particular, the program was organized around the smart farm industry, which is one of the fields receiving the most attention in relation to food security. Kuwait Agricultural and Fisheries Administration and Kuwait Agricultural Association announced their smart farm industry promotion policy and Korea-Kuwait cooperation plan. Smart farm policies, industry status, and technology application examples were introduced.
<The 4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum Program>
With this forum as an opportunity, Kuwaiti government agencies, agricultural associations, and smart farm companies are expected to recognize Korea's excellent smart farm technology and expand opportunities for cooperation in the future.
<Photo of the 4th Korea-Kuwait Smart City Forum>
Kuwait is highly dependent on imports of agricultural products as only about 0.6 hectares, or 1% of the total land, are being used as arable land. In addition, the organic matter and moisture content of the soil is low, and the natural water resources necessary for irrigation are insufficient.
Kuwait, which is made up of desert terrain, needs to respond to climatic conditions such as hot dry climate, erratic rainfall, and sandstorms. Domestic agricultural production alone cannot meet the demand for crops, so most agricultural products are imported. Accordingly, the demand for Korean-style smart farms is increasing. In April of this year, a Korean consortium won the first order for the K-Smart Farm project from the Kuwaiti owner (K4 Farms), and in November, they signed a mutual memorandum of understanding (MOU) to start construction of a large-scale Korean indoor smart farm in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in the first half of 8.
Through this forum, Kuwait Ambassador Jeong Byung-ha said, "Through this forum and follow-up projects, we expect that Korea's excellent technology and Kuwait's capital will become a new successful business model for smart farm export." In addition, KOTRA President Yoo Jeong-yeol said, “The demand for smart farms will continue to increase in the future for the purpose of responding to climate change, securing food security, and improving agricultural productivity. We will continue to support them so that they can advance into the market.”
In addition, KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center is supporting a smart farm consortium composed of domestic companies by capturing the demand of local companies to overcome the poor agricultural conditions in Kuwait by using smart farm technology. In the past, it has been closely supporting domestic companies to win local projects, such as △establishing project order strategy, △arranging video consultations between domestic companies and the client, and △consulting on proposal writing.
As local demand for the introduction of smart farms increases after Corona, the KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center plans to further expand and promote smart farm overseas expansion support services, such as △export consulting, △hosting video conferences, and △hosting intergovernmental cooperation forums.
Sang-Hoon Sang, director of Formit (KOTRA Kuwait Trade Center branch office), who participated as a speaker at this Smart Farm Forum, said, “With the support of the Kuwait Trade Center in the difficult situation of Corona 19, we signed the first contract for a Korean smart farm in the first half of 2020, and further expanded in the second half. We have been able to expand our business by signing an MOU for the project.” He said, “We will expand our entry into overseas markets by using the excellence of ‘K-Farm’, which combines world-class Korean information and communication technology with agriculture, as a weapon. I will leave,” he said.
Hong Chang-seok, head of trade in Kuwait, KOTRA, said, “We exported our smart farming solutions to Middle Eastern countries where agriculture is difficult by accurately identifying local market demands through active collaboration with competent branch companies. ·It is very meaningful in that it has entered the overseas market in the field of the Green New Deal.”
Source: Comprehensive data from KOTRA’s Kuwait Trade Center