SK Group and the Daejeon Creative Economy Innovation Center plan to select and support start-ups seeking to enter the Middle East market, group officials said Sunday.

The conglomerate and the center, which was jointly established by SK and the government in Daejeon, held a contest last month for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises wishing to enter the Middle East market and are currently in the process of selecting the final candidates.

The project first started when President Park Geun-hye signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Telecom Co. while visiting the region in March. STC requested the South Korean government to provide assistance on the Korean venture firm nurturing model in order to prepare for a post-oil-based economy.

Two finalists will be announced next January and will be sent to Saudi Arabia in February, making them the first venture firms under the creative economy model to enter Saudi Arabia.

The Daejeon center will provide the finalists 10 million won ($8,420) as well as a business connection with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. SK Group will support the firms’ technical development via a hotline and STC will provide networking with investors and free office space in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Meanwhile, STC also intends to select a number of Saudi venture firms to send to Korea for information technology and expand to other Asian countries as the Saudi government has shown interest in a creative economy and hopes to create a venture firm ecosystem.

The Daejeon center also signed a memorandum in October with the state-operated China Unicom to jointly nurture venture firms, providing the possibility for venture firms residing at the Daejeon center to enter the Chinese market.

“The Creative Economy Innovation Center settled as a source of growth, going beyond vitalizing the domestic economy and becoming a product of export that creates additional value in the global market,” an SK Group official said.

(sangyj@heraldcorp.com)