SEOUL, South Korea,
March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SK
Telecom (NYSE: SKM) announced today that it signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with Saudi Telecom Company (STC) to collaborate
on the development of the innovation capabilities in Saudi Arabia by benchmarking Korea's Creative
Economy Concept. In addition, both companies agreed to explore
development of mutually rewarding business opportunities in
Saudi Arabia and potentially the
region, especially in areas including digital healthcare, education
and Smart Cities.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150304/179608
The MOU signing ceremony was held on March 4, 2015 at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh,
where the Korean-Saudi Business Forum took place, and was attended
by senior executives from both sides, including Yu Jeong-joon, Chairman of SK Global Growth
Committee, as well as high ranking government officials, including
Choi Yang-hee, Minister of Science,
ICT and Future Planning of Korea. Jang
Dong-hyun, President and CEO of SK Telecom, signed the MOU
on behalf of SK Telecom with Emad A. Al
Aoudah, acting CEO of STC, on behalf of STC.
Under the MOU, SK Telecom and STC will benchmark 'SK Creative
Economic Innovation Center*' and collaborate on the development of
the innovation capabilities in Saudi
Arabia with the aim to promote the creation of diverse
mutually-beneficial business models between large companies and
small startups in the Kingdom.
* In line with the Korean Government's Creative Economy
philosophy, SK Group and the Government have jointly established a
Creative Economic Innovation Center in Daejeon, Korea, to support
the growth of startups and small-and medium-sized
enterprises.
SK Telecom expects the partnership to serve as a vehicle where
not only the two companies, but also venture companies of both
countries can work together to develop innovative technologies and
solutions, thus opening up new opportunities for growth in both
markets.
Moreover, SK Telecom and STC have also agreed to share
technological expertise and marketing knowhow in diverse areas to
strengthen their business presence not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the overseas markets.
SK Telecom will share its products and marketing capabilities in
areas of smart cities, digital healthcare, smart learning, IoT,
Lifeware (life+hardware/software) and BEMS (Building Energy
Management System). Through business collaboration on these areas,
STC expects to secure new growth engines, extending its reach
beyond the telecommunications market.
STC, the leading telecommunications company in Saudi Arabia, has a total of 160 million
subscribers in the Middle East and
South East Asia. With 70 percent
of its shares owned by the Saudi Government, STC plays a pivotal
role in the Government's drive to achieve advancement of the
national economy. Thus, the MOU between SK Telecom and STC holds a
significant meaning for both SK Telecom and Korea as it marks the
first case where a Korean model for economic revitalization is
applied to another country, and opens the door to valuable
opportunities in the Middle Eastern market for new
digital/ICT-based growth businesses, including smart cities,
healthcare and smart learning, the size of which is expected to
reach KRW 33 trillion over the next
five years.
"The strategic cooperation between Saudi Telecom Company and SK
Telecom is significant not just for the two companies but also for
the two nations. It will provide a chance for customers of the two
companies to experience innovative technologies, overcoming the
geographical limitations, while playing a pivotal role in
revitalizing economic growth of both Korea and Saudi Arabia," said, Jang Dong-hyun, President and CEO of SK Telecom.
"Going forward, we hope to deepen our cooperation by expanding the
areas of collaboration, including innovative business areas where
SK Telecom and Korean venture companies have strength such as
information security solutions."
"This strategic partnership will facilitate the collaboration
between firms in both Saudi and South
Korea to pioneer innovative technologies and revitalize the
economies of their countries," Al-Biyari, CEO of STC explained. He
added that the project will incorporate best practices to
accelerate the development of technological solutions which
increase workflow effectiveness and efficiency for individuals,
businesses, and governments.
In January 2015, senior officials
of STC have visited SK Creative Economic Innovation Center to hold
a joint workshop. Since then, SK Telecom has been making aggressive
efforts to accelerate its cooperation with the Saudi Arabian
company and the Saudi Government by dispatching a special team of
experts to the Kingdom in early February to discuss measures to
foster venture companies and build a win-win ecosystem for both
large companies and SMEs.
Also, SK Telecom's President and CEO Jang Dong-hyun met with the STC's Chairman of
the Board, Managing Director Abdulaziz A.
Alsugair on March 2, 2015, at
STC's booth at MWC 2015 held in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss ways to develop
new business opportunities and growth engines for STC by applying
the concept of Creative Economy and developing innovative
technologies and services in new business areas.
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, KSE: 017670), established in 1984, is
Korea's largest telecommunications company with more than 28
million mobile subscribers, accounting for over 50% of the market.
The company reached KRW 17.164
trillion in revenue in 2014. As the world's first company to
commercialize CDMA, CDMA 2000 1x, CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, SK
Telecom launched the nation's first LTE service in July 2011. SK Telecom also became the world's
first mobile carrier to commercialize 150Mbps LTE-Advanced in
June 2013 and 225Mbps LTE-Advanced in
June 2014 through Carrier
Aggregation(CA). In line with its efforts to swiftly move towards
the next-generation mobile network system, or 5G, it successfully
commercialized 300Mbps tri-band LTE-A CA. As of December 2014, the company has over 16.7 million
LTE and LTE-Advanced subscribers. Based on its strength in network
operations business, SK Telecom is seeking new growth engines in
areas of platform, Big Data and convergence business. For more
information, please visit www.sktelecom.com or email to
press@sktelecom.com.
About Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
STC is the leading national provider of telecommunication
services in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The company is working continuously to fulfill and
satisfy the market requirements, keeping pace with the emerging
technologies in the telecommunications sector and satisfying its
customer's needs. STC has put in its consideration that, this is
the way to reinforce its position and identity, in view of a
changing world, where the role and usage of telecommunications
became more significant. Believing in the importance of its
customers and fulfillment of their needs, STC has adopted a new
Broadband Strategy that aims to support and re-enforce its leading
competitive position. Based on this strategy, STC strives to
continue to enhance customer- centric culture in all its business
aspects. This culture has been reflected in the organizational
design of the company that focused on the Key STC Customer
Categories. In the last few years, STC has gone beyond its local
borders to the international markets, forming a network of
businesses and investments in a number of Gulf Cooperation
Countries, Asia & Africa, which enabled STC to serve a greater
number of global customers.
Saudi Telecom Company (www.stc.com.sa)
www.facebook.com/STC
https://plus.google.com/+stc/posts#+stc/posts
www.youtube.com/STCsaudiarabia
https://twitter.com/STC_KSA
Media Contact
Cindy Kang
SK Telecom Co. Ltd.
(822) 6100-3834
(8210) 9113-2344
psyche@sk.com
Jee-soo Lee
Edelman Korea
(822) 2022-8263
(8210) 4198-6009
Jeesoo.lee@edelman.com