Lee Jae-yong visits UAE ahead of 4th anniversary as Samsung Electronics chairman

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong traveled to the Middle East for on-site management ahead of the fourth anniversary of his appointment, which falls on Tuesday.

Lee visited the Al Dhafra gas-fired power plant construction site in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Wednesday (local time) to encourage employees working there.

He toured key facilities with on-site staff, reviewing the construction schedule and safety management conditions. He also met with executives from Samsung C&T and Samsung E&A to discuss strategies for securing future growth drivers and explore opportunities to enter new businesses.

Lee joined employees for lunch at the site cafeteria, listening to their concerns about daily life and taking note of their suggestions.

He then held a roundtable with Samsung C&T and Samsung E&A staff to hear about difficulties encountered during overseas projects and discuss current local business issues.

Before his UAE visit, Lee sent gifts and personal letters of appreciation on Friday to 730 employees from Samsung affiliates deployed across nine Middle Eastern countries — including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran — as well as to their families living locally and in South Korea.

Lee has consistently looked after employees stationed in the Middle East, a region where anxiety persists due to war and geopolitical tensions, while focusing on identifying future business opportunities.

The UAE was also the first overseas destination he chose after becoming chairman. Two months into his tenure, in December 2022, he visited the Barakah nuclear power plant construction site in Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi. The Barakah plant is South Korea's first overseas nuclear power plant construction project, carried out by a "Team Korea" consortium that includes Samsung C&T.

Samsung C&T demonstrated world-class construction capabilities through the Barakah nuclear power plant project in the UAE. Samsung E&A has also made the UAE a key hub for its Middle East and Africa operations, carrying out a range of plant projects in refining, gas and petrochemicals.

Samsung is exploring new business opportunities in areas such as AI data centers and energy infrastructure, in step with the UAE's economic growth and industrial development.

The Al Dhafra gas-fired power plant that Lee visited is a large-scale power infrastructure project being built by Samsung C&T in a consortium with local construction firm Trojan General Contracting. It is expected to help supply electricity for advanced industries such as AI data centers.

In September 2023, during the Chuseok holiday, Lee visited Saudi Arabia and Israel. In Saudi Arabia, he inspected the mountain tunnel construction site for NEOM, an eco-friendly smart city project in which Samsung C&T is participating.

At the time, Lee told employees that "the Middle East is a treasure trove of opportunities for future growth and innovative technology," encouraging them for their hard work.

Samsung Electronics is collaborating with Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy giant, on building large-scale open RAN infrastructure, among other industrial mobile communications projects. In 2024, it established a new regional subsidiary for the Middle East and North Africa in the Saudi capital Riyadh, strengthening its push into the Middle Eastern market.

In February 2024, the day after Lee was acquitted on all charges in the first-instance trial related to the alleged illegal merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, he visited Samsung's Middle East operations during the Lunar New Year holiday.

That May, he met with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who was visiting South Korea, to discuss ways to expand cooperation in advanced industries.