South Korea's business community welcomed the announcement by the Korean and U.S. governments of strategic investment projects in the United States, saying the deals should ease trade uncertainty between the two countries.
Six business organizations — the Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Enterprises Federation, the Federation of Korean Industries, the Korea Federation of SMEs and the Korea Federation of Middle Market Enterprises — said in a joint statement on the 1st that they found it meaningful that the two governments had unveiled plans to pursue strategic investment projects in the United States.
"We highly value the efforts of both governments, which have given concrete shape to a framework for mutually beneficial economic cooperation even in a difficult trade environment," the six groups said. "We will actively cooperate so that this investment leads to deeper economic cooperation between the two countries, an expansion of our companies' business in the United States and, ultimately, a recovery in the vitality of our economy."
The two countries announced plans the same day for three strategic investment projects, including the construction and operation of the Encinal combined-cycle gas power plant in Texas, worth $22.3 billion (about 30.2856 trillion won), along with a framework for nuclear power cooperation in the United States and a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska.
Business leaders said the announcement would reduce trade uncertainty between the two sides. "This carries significant weight in that it reaffirms the commitment to implement last year's Korea-U.S. trade agreement and translates it into actual investment projects," the six groups said. "We expect trade uncertainty between the two countries to ease and the predictability of the business environment for our companies to improve."
The groups also pointed to the potential for Korean companies to take part in energy infrastructure. "If our companies expand their participation in the U.S. market, we believe it will contribute to the joint overseas expansion of related industries, growth in exports to the United States, stronger industrial competitiveness in both countries, supply chain stability and closer cooperation on economic security," they said.
"We hope this leads to tangible business results based on commercial rationality and the shared interests of both countries, and that it also contributes to strengthening energy security," they added. "We hope the two countries will further solidify a long-term and reliable partnership on industrial and supply chain cooperation."
