Atlantic Club Delegation Facilitates Upsurge of Korean Investment in Bulgaria

(L-R) Atlantic Club President Solomon Passy, South Korean Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho, Atlantic Club Board member Maxim Behar at a news conference in Sofia Monday. Photo by M3 Communications

Bulgaria has come a lot closer to attracting major South Korean investors in machine-building, shipbuilding and IT as a result of a diplomatic visit of a Bulgarian Atlantic Club delegation to Korea.

The specific business projects facilitated by the Atlantic Club in Korea were presented Monday at a special news conference of the delegation members and the South Korean Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho.

The visit of the delegation of the Bulgarian Atlantic Council to South Korea in December 2010 was the first of its kind in the 20-year history of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea. It included meetings in Seoul, Busan, and the Je

The delegation consisting of the President of the Atlantic Club Bulgaria, Solomon Passy, and businessman Maxim Behar, CEO of M3 Communications Group, Inc., who is an Atlantic Club Board member, was in Korea at the invitation of the Korean government and the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In addition to their meetings with high-level political figures such as South Korea's Minister of Unification, Hyun In-taek, and the US Ambassador to South Korea, Kathleen Stephens, Passy and Behar met with senior representatives of over 20 Korean companies during their formal visit to the Korean Peninsula, which had a clear mission to promote investments and trade between Korea and Bulgaria. They also met with Korea's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Shin Kak-su and the President of the Korean-Bulgarian Economic Council Choi Cho-hyun.

Passy noted that while South Korea is eager to import Bulgarian food and agricultural products, it is also generously willing to invest in Bulgaria and to provide it with know-how in a number of fields.

Behar announced that TYM, a Korean producer of tractors and agricultural equipment will almost certain invest in the assembly of tractors in Bulgaria, in the Madara factory located in the northeastern city of Shumen. He said the senior management of the TYM company will be arriving to Bulgaria within weeks for talks with the Madara plant.

The Bulgarian Atlantic Club delegation held talks with CyberLogitec, a Korean IT giant interested in setting up in Bulgaria its largest IT center outside of North Korea. If Bulgaria is selected by the CyberLogitec management for this investment, it will draw dozens of millions of euros in FDI in its IT sector, Behar explained.

He noted that a Korean company is expected to start a partnership with the largest Bulgarian software engineering services Musala Soft.

"Very soon Bulgarian IT experts will start providing software solutions for Korea. This was a very productive visit, whose effect is yet to be assessed," Behar said.

Another major spot where Bulgaria is expected to draw South Korean FDI is the shipbuilding sector. The Atlantic Club delegation met with the Yin Sik-noh, CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries, and the entire board of the company.

"We are definitely interested in investing in Bulgaria especially in the shipbuilding sector," the Samsung CEO is quoted as saying, meaning the Shipbuilding Yard in Bulgaria's Varna.

Exchange of views about the large-scale promotion of well-known Bulgarian goods and of the Bulgarian business sector were the focus of a business meeting that the Bulgarian delegates had at the Korean office of the global PR corporation Hill&Knowlton, of which the largest Bulgarian PR company M3 Communications Group, Inc., is an associate.

Korea's Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho has lauded the Atlantic Club for expanding its horizons from security and diplomacy in order to stimulate the economic relations between the two countries.

"We will be very glad if the Bulgarian government decides to participate the Yeosu Expo that Korea will organize in 2012," His Excellency said adding that the South Korean side has proposed to Bulgaria that the first ever meeting of a bilateral committee for industrial cooperation be held in March 2010.

"Any bilateral projects should be in the spirit of a win-win strategy," the ambassador said pointing out that Korean investors are especially interested in Bulgaria's renewable energy sector, privatization plans, waste and water treatment, and rehabilitation of the national power grid.

The two members of the leadership of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria also delivered a lecture to students studying Bulgarian at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and were received by the deputy head of the school, Chung Il-jong.

"I have never seen such a monolithic group of students abroad studying Bulgarian. Each of them – about 30 – had a Bulgarian name and presented themselves in Bulgarian. I have never seen such a large group of foreign students of Bulgarian in such a distant country speak with so much love for Bulgaria," Maxim Behar said making it clear he was impressed with the knowledge of Bulgarian language and history by the students at the Hankuk University.

He pointed out that these students are the most important bridge between Bulgaria and Korea since their knowledge is life-long, and is more lasting even than most bilateral economic projects.

Article about the initiative of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria for a more proactive EU role on the Korean Peninsula READ HERE

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!