SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Hanwha Finance is sharpening its Middle East growth agenda as Chief Global Officer Dong-Won Kim used his opening address at Abu Dhabi Finance Week's Global Markets Summit to position South Korea-UAE financial collaboration as a long-term strategic pillar for both economies and a testbed for next-generation digital capital markets.
Strengthening a Korea-UAE "100-Year Partnership" Through Finance
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Kim framed financial services as the connective tissue that will turn high-level Korea-UAE diplomacy into investable projects and new cross-border capital flows. He noted that "since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1980, South Korea and the UAE have continuously expanded the scope of cooperation", and stressed that Hanwha Finance intends to help carry forward a "100-year partnership" between the two nations.
Kim underlined that both countries "share a common DNA - one that transforms crises into opportunities, embraces change with courage, and values trust-based, long-term partnerships". He highlighted finance as the operational enabler of this vision, calling it "The catalyst that transforms the will to cooperate into feasible opportunities. It is the vital force that sustains industry and fuels innovation."
Abu Dhabi as a Strategic Hub for Next-Generation Capital Networks
The Global Markets Summit at Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025 focuses on redesigning capital flows and building a financial operating system where traditional and digital finance converge. Against this backdrop, Hanwha Finance is signaling that Abu Dhabi will be a central node in its global strategy, leveraging the emirate's regulatory environment, sovereign capital pools and growing digital-asset ambitions.
Kim pointed to Abu Dhabi's "sophisticated market infrastructure" as a core differentiator, emphasizing that the partnership is not only about deploying capital but also about co-developing new financial rails. "Together, with Abu Dhabi's sophisticated market infrastructure, we aim to create a new financial ecosystem," he said, framing the UAE capital as a launchpad for collaborative innovation in real-world asset tokenization, Web3 finance and cross-border payment infrastructure.
Co-Investments, Supply-Chain Finance and Digital Assets on the Agenda
Looking ahead, Hanwha Finance expects Korea-UAE financial collaboration to expand across multiple high-impact areas that are highly relevant for institutional investors and corporates:
- Co-investments in real-world assets, including infrastructure, energy transition projects and long-duration industrial investments.
- Supply-chain and trade finance, connecting Korean manufacturing and technology exporters with Middle Eastern buyers and logistics hubs.
- Cross-border payment and settlement infrastructure, reducing friction and cost in bilateral trade and capital movements.
- Digital-asset and on-chain finance platforms, where tokenized real-world assets, programmable payments and smart contracts can support new business models.
By aligning these initiatives with Abu Dhabi's broader push into on-chain finance and regulated digital infrastructure, Hanwha Finance aims to anchor itself as a key Asian partner for regional asset managers, sovereign funds and family offices.
Positioning Hanwha Finance as a Global Digital and Wealth Partner
With $130 billion in assets under management across insurance, asset management and investment services, Hanwha Finance is using ADFW 2025 to reinforce its positioning as a technology-driven, globally oriented financial group. The company is investing in AI, data analytics and Web3 capabilities to deliver more personalized digital experiences, expand wealth-management offerings and improve risk management.
The participation of four financial affiliates-Hanwha Life, Hanwha General Insurance, Hanwha Asset Management and Hanwha Investment & Securities-as Premier Partners at ADFW underlines the group's intention to build a multi-line presence in the GCC. For institutional and wholesale counterparts in Abu Dhabi, this creates a broader platform spanning risk-transfer solutions, multi-asset investment products and capital-markets capabilities.
From Bilateral Cooperation to a Model for the "Next Generation of Finance"
For policymakers and industry leaders watching the Korea-UAE corridor, Hanwha Finance's message is clear: near-term collaboration on co-investments and infrastructure can evolve into a deeper, technology-enabled financial ecosystem that blends traditional regulation with digital innovation. "It is our aspiration that the journey we embark upon together will become a global reference for the next generation of finance," Kim concluded, framing the partnership as a blueprint for how mid-sized economies can jointly shape the AI- and blockchain-enabled financial architectures of the coming decades.
For more information about Hanwha Finance's global activities and financial services portfolio, visit https://www.hanwha.com/industries/finance.do.