By Ukraine Rebuild News Staff
Sept 17, 2023
In a flurry of diplomatic activity and business visits, South Korea’s government and companies have secured opportunities to join the reconstruction of Ukraine in areas including nuclear energy, dam restoration, solar technology, oil refining, lithium mining and more.
South Korean Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong returned home over the weekend from a visit to Kyiv, having secured Korean involvement in at least six major projects in diverse areas of Ukraine’s economy and promised $2.3 billion in state aid to Ukraine.
His traveling companions included the CEOs of Hanwha Solutions, Yooshin, Posco, Korea Land and Housing, Korea Water Resources, Samsung C&T, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, HD Hyundai, Naver, KT and CJ Korea Express.
In the recent months of talks with Ukrainian officials that culminated in last week’s Ukraine-Korea Reconstruction Cooperation Forum, Korean firms have agreed to develop a smart transportation master plan for Kyiv and area and a smart city plan for the city of Uman, rebuild the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region and the sewage treatment infrastructure in the city of Buch, and upgrade the nation’s rail transport and Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport.
Other side agreements have Korean companies venturing into machine building lithium mining, oil refining, “green” metallurgy and water resource management, Zelensky’s office said.
“We are very interested in implementing projects in the sphere of power generation, development and strengthening of transit capacities, in particular, railway transport, development of the rapid railway network for connections with European countries,” Zelensky said during the visit.
Most of the agreements are tentative and subject to further negotiations and confirmation.
Last week’s Ukraine-Korea Reconstruction Cooperation Forum was just the latest of several South Korean initiatives in recent months. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol led a delegation to Poland in July to meet with Ukrainian officials on the reconstruction, accompanied by executives from most of the companies that were also in Kyiv last week.
