The Ambassador pointed out that back to the 1970s to 1980s, over a hundred thousand Koreans worked on infrastructure construction sites in Saudi Arabia. Close bonds were formed between our two countries during that time. As for trading activities, he said that the two-way trade volume between the Republic of Korea and Saudi Arabia reached USD 30.2 billion in 2018, a 22.4% increase compared with that of 2017. This trade volume has been increasing steadily over the past years and this is the first time it had exceeded USD 30 billion since 2015. As of 2018, Saudi Arabia is Korea’s 8th largest trading partner while Korea is the 5th of Saudi Arabia’s. Cars, automobile parts, electronic goods, steel and textiles are the major Korean exports to Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporter to Korea, accounting for about 30% of the total oil imports of the Republic of Korea. ----More 13:26 LOCAL TIME 10:26 GMT 0008 www.spa.gov.sa/w1126267