Davos discussions likely to yield business bonanza for Korea
Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang, left, and Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin shake hands last October after signing a letter of intent to cooperate on the development of a nuclear power plant in Poland.
Vestas, a Danish wind turbine manufacturer, committed $300 million of investment in Korea to build a manufacturing facility during the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday.
The announcement was made during an event attended by President Yoon Suk Yeol and Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang.
A specific location is not yet decided, the company only mentioning a plan “to establish a large-scale manufacturing plant to produce key equipment and parts for wind turbines.”
Vestas executives, including Executive Vice President Tommy Nielsen, visited Korea’s South Jeolla province last year to study conditions for the building of the factory. Local media outlets suspect that Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, could be among candidate locations due to the geography and the weather.
The Aarhus N, Denmark-based company is also actively considering moving its Asia-Pacific headquarters to Korea, according to a statement released by the ministry.
In separate meetings scheduled for Thursday, executives of two big biopharmaceutical companies — Novartis and Merck Life Science — will discuss with the Industry Minister about a possible investment of around $500 million, the ministry said.
The Korean ministry said that Merck Life Science CEO Matthias Heinzel has expressed interest in selecting Korea as a location to house a plant producing biopharmaceutical chemicals.
Marie France Tschudin, President of Novartis, has called on the Korean government for more funding and regulatory support regarding breakthrough drugs.
The ministry will consult with the companies to reform regulatory hurdles in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Lee also promoted Korea’s bid to win multi-billion-dollar nuclear power and energy projects during meetings with his counterparts from Poland, Czech Republic and Qatar Wednesday in Davos.
The minister submitted a request to Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin for a feasibility study to be done for a Polish nuclear power project, following the signing of a letter of intent to become a developer last October.
Lee also suggested that the two countries sign a letter of intent to cooperate on developing the Patnow project, which will be built on the site of the Patnow thermal power plant, a step further from the initial agreement among state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Polish energy providers.
At the time of the October announcement, the deputy prime minister told the Korean government that Korea is "100 percent" guaranteed to be a partner in the project.
In a meeting with Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela, Lee noted that Korea has a proven track record of building 36 nuclear power plants over the past 40 years.
KHNP submitted last year a bid for the Czech Republic’s 1.2 gigawatt Dukovany nuclear power plant. The project will cost an estimated $6 billion.
The Korean minister also suggested that the two countries extend their cooperation to include hydrogen energy, electric vehicles (EV) and EV batteries and semiconductors.
BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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