Shinsegae Chair Chung joins Trump’s Middle East tour

Chung Yong-jin, chairman of South Korea’s retail group Shinsegae Inc., is the only Korean businessperson accompanying US President Donald Trump on his Middle East trip this week, raising expectations that Chung could serve as a bridge between Seoul and Washington amid ongoing trade tensions with the US.

Chung attended a dinner banquet in Doha hosted by Qatari political leaders in honor of Trump, according to retail industry sources on Wednesday.

He was invited by the US president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to join his father’s Middle East trip and is the only Korean businessperson among the delegates on the tour.

Qatar is the second leg of Trump’s tour to the region following Saudi Arabia in his first state visit to the Middle East since beginning his second term in the White House in January.

Chung is known to have close ties with Trump Jr. In December, he dined with then-President-elect Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at the invitation of Trump Jr., becoming Korea's first tycoon to meet him following the US election.
 

An invitation to the dinner between the top leaders of Qatar and the US offers an invaluable opportunity to network and build relationships with investors from the Middle East.

In Saudi Arabia, Trump also brought more than 30 leaders of top US companies to a lunch hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi royal court in Riyadh.

The invitation list provided by the White House includes executives from big banks, AI companies, defense contractors and retail giants, according to a CNBC report. IBM’s Arvind Krishna, Amazon’s Andy Jassy and Palantir’s Alex Karp were among the executives who joined the lunch.

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

Chung’s participation in the tour could not come at a better time as Korean companies are keen to cash in on the rising global popularity of Korean content such as K-pop, drama series and films, fueled by the growth of over-the-top streaming platforms like Netflix Inc.

The Korean content boom is expected to drive the demand for Korean food and beauty products in the Middle East, mirroring the trend seen in the US, presenting a strong opportunity for the retail-focused Shinsegae.

Exports of Korean content like movies and music have risen by $100 million over the past few years, leading to a $180 million increase of exports in Korean cosmetics and processed food during the same period, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

Chung has served as a key link between the Trump administration and Korean business leaders amid the lack of formal diplomatic channels between Seoul and Washington following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster by the Constitutional Court last month.

In late April, Trump Jr. visited South Korea at the invitation of Chung and arranged private meetings with top business leaders across major Korean companies.

“With the South Korean government beset by political uncertainty, it would be meaningful for anyone to play a bridging role with US political circles,” said a retail industry official.

Chung has cemented a relationship with Trump Jr. since 2015, strengthened by their shared devotion to Protestant Christianity.

Write to Jong-Seo Park and Jae-Kwang Ahn at cosmos@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.