Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Chairman and CEO Geewon Park held a ceremony in Riyadh recently to celebrate the opening of its Water R&D Center in Saudi Arabia.

Prominent figures present included Minister of Water and Electricity, Abdullah Al-Husseyan, and Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) Gov. Abdulrahman M. Al-Ibrahim, as well as South Korean Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jong-yong Kim, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction President and COO Keysun Han, and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction’s Water Business Group EVP Seokwon Yun.

Doosan has been actively engaged in carrying out various research activities through its Water R&D centers in Dubai of the UAE and Tampa, Florida (US).

Currently, the company is operating a total of four Water R&D centers worldwide, including one center in Korea.

This new addition, which is located in Dammam, will play a central role within the global network of Doosan’s Water R&D centers, particularly in acquiring the core competitiveness needed for the wide portfolio of water businesses Doosan is pursuing.

The R&D Center in Dammam will be working together with leading local R&D institutes and universities on developing water solutions that are based on energy-efficient and eco-friendly technologies.

Doosan’s Water R&D centers are currently working on the development of core technologies needed for seawater desalination as well as technologies applicable to water treatment systems. The Water R&D Center in Dammam will be focusing on the development of core technologies needed in the evaporation and hybrid desalination processes.

Seokwon Yun, who heads the company’s water business group, said: “By establishing a Doosan Water R&D center in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest desalination market, and collaborating with SWCC, our major client, on the development of technology, we expect to be able to contribute much more actively to the advancement of the water industry as a whole.”