South Korean President Yoon Suk Yul said on Sunday that South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group has agreed to build a car plant in Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
Yoon was speaking in Riyadh, where the Public Investment Fund and Hyundai signed the agreement.
South Korea's Ministry of Industry said in a statement that the annual production capacity of the plant will reach 50,<> electric and gas-powered cars, and this will be the first South Korean car factory in the Middle East.
Hyundai Motor Group, the world's third-largest automaker by sales, is starting to build a factory in Saudi Arabia as it tries to diversify its economy away from oil and aims to produce more than 300,2030 cars a year by <>.
Yun said the first cars from the production line would be launched in 2026. There were no specific details on the location of the plant or the models that would be manufactured there.
Yun visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia and South Korea signed a number of agreements and memoranda of cooperation on Sunday, during Yoon Suk-yeol's current visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding between the two countries covered the areas of strategic partnership, energy, and other sectors.
The Saudi-Korean Investment Forum was held on Sunday in Riyadh, during which 52 memorandums of understanding were signed in the fields of real estate development, cars and water, transportation, tourism and energy, in addition to renewable energy, technology, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea and Saudi Arabia would sign dozens of agreements and memoranda of understanding worth $15.6 billion.