South Korea’s chaebols expect to get a share of PH infra projects
has investments in energy, shipbuilding and airport projects, among others.
Their interest in the Philippines was partly driven by the Korean government’s “Go South” policy or a focus in ASEAN. Within the region, South Korea has expressed preference for the VIP countries or Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“I travelled to ASEAN, but geographically the Philippines is the nearest to Korea. That shows the importance of the Philippines as our partner country,” he said.
“We have success stories in the Philippines like KEPCO and other companies in Clark, so we expect of more success stories here,” he said.
Kim also said that Korea is in the process of setting up of the Korean Infrastructure Fund, which could also be tapped by Korean firms for their investments in the Philippines.
To upgrade partnership between the two countries, Kim has urged that both countries should focus on advanced tech industries. He cited a discussion on the possibility of cooperation in the electric vehicle industry and other related industries.
Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Dong-man Han said he promised
Twelve of South Korea’s biggest engineering and construction companies or "chaebols" are taking a closer look at the Philippines, especially Clark Freeport, as they seek to partake of the R8.4-trillion massive infrastructure program of the Duterte administration.
Young-sun Kim, secretary-general of ASEAN-Korea Center that organized the mission in cooperation with the Philippines Board of Investments, said at the Philippines-Korea Investment Forum on Infrastructure and Energy that the top level delegation visited Clark Freeport Zone on Monday to explore opportunities in the New Clark City, a massive development in the former US airfield that includes a new terminal and future site of the National Government Administrative Complex.
The big 12 potential investors in the country include Seohyun Eenrgy, CNNET Co. Ltd., Aju Corporation, Ye Won Co., Ltd., GS E&C, Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd., K-Water, Daelim E&C, Soosung Engineering Co., Ltd., CJ Huaman Tech Co., Ltd., Kepco Philippines Corp., and Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction.
According to Kim, the mission members are keen to participate in the country’s infrastructure projects particularly energy, water treatment, construction, and ICT.
Korean, one of the top investors in the country, to President Duterte to bring tourists and investments to the Philippines. Some of his commitments were to bring in 2 million Korean tourists from the current 1.2 million. Korea is the number source of tourists in the Philippines for past several years.
The ambassador also promised to Duterte to help increase the bilateral trade to $20 billion during his tour of duty in the country. The ambassador said that latest bilateral trade already reached $15 billion.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that two-way trade in 2016 reached $7.749 billion of which the Philippines imported $5.56 billion or twice its exports of $2.161 billion. As such, the balance of trade heavily weighs in favor of Korea.
Meantime, Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul Hernandez said that aside from infrastructure, the Philippines is also pushing for Korean investments in agricultural production and processing.
The Philippines is also promoting design driven exports like garments, chemicals, software development, education, language, IT-BPM and tourism. The Philippines also want to host some of Korean firms migrating out of China.