After a recent trip to the Middle East, President Lee Myung-bak has repeatedly urged Korean companies to grab new business opportunities in the region, saying it is in the midst of an oil boom reminiscent of the 1970s and ‘80s. He has also encouraged young people looking for a job to lift up their gaze and look beyond the small domestic market.

Lee, formerly president of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., has recently visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the three key countries of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Thanks to high oil prices since 1999, these countries have raked in colossal oil revenues. As Lee pointed out, they have been pouring their huge oil wealth into economic and social development projects to prepare for the post-oil era and enhance public welfare.

For instance, the three countries Lee visited alone have earmarked a combined total of $600 billion for their national development plans.

In recent years, these development schemes have benefited Korean builders and plant exporters. According to government data, the amount of construction orders Korea received from the region between 2007 and 2011 totaled $162.5 billion, or $32.5 billion a year on average, accounting for 61 percent of all overseas construction orders Korea won in that time.

To get a sense of the contribution that construction orders from the Middle East have made to the Korean economy, one needs to remember that last year Korea earned $45.3 billion from auto exports, $56.5 billion from shipbuilding and $50.1 billion from semiconductor exports.

In contrast to builders, domestic companies engaged in other industrial sectors have not actively explored business opportunities in the Middle East. This needs to be changed as Middle Eastern countries are investing heavily to build manufacturing bases and expand social services.

For instance, Saudi Arabia has started to build five industrial clusters to nurture key manufacturing sectors and create jobs. One of the five clusters focuses on auto and auto parts manufacturing with an aim of producing 600,000 vehicles by 2025.

Korean companies’ participation in these projects is a win-win formula. They can benefit Middle Eastern countries by providing experience and expertise in implementing their development schemes. In return, they get new business opportunities.

To encourage Korean companies’ advancement into the region, Lee called on officials to consider offering tax breaks and other benefits to Korean workers stationed in the Middle East.

That could be an incentive. But to expand Korean companies’ presence in the region, the government needs to accelerate negotiations on a free trade agreement with the GCC, which started in 2008.

The government is also advised to expand personnel exchanges between Korea and Middle Eastern countries, cultivate experts specializing in each country of the region, and beef up financial support to help Korean companies secure a beachhead in the region.

This year, Korean companies have difficulty increasing overseas demand for their products and services. If they are looking for new markets that can take up some of the slack, the Middle East should be the first to tap into.