Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: To fill the gap between demand and supply for power, about 353 MW power would be added to the national grid by end of 2018 with the assistance of Republic of Korea.

Korean Ambassador Dr Song Jong-hwan expressed these views while talking exclusively to Daily Times on Saturday. Among the total 353 MW power generations, 147 MW from Patrind Hydropower project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is scheduled to be completed by K-Water and Daewoo Construction by the end of 2016 while 106 MW Golen Gol Hydropower Chitral-KP is scheduled to be completed by Sambu Construction by the end of 2017. The remaining 100 MW Gulpur Hydropower project in AJK is scheduled to be completed by KOSEP, Daelim Construction and Lotte Construction by the end of 2018. The Korean ambassador said that a Power Transmission line Project in Gujrat is expected to be completed during the current year as well.

Dr Jong-Hwan was of the view that God has gifted several natural resources to Pakistan and now it is up to the people to utilise these resources and keep the country on path of development. He said that though ups and down may come but consistent and sincere efforts would bring positive result at the end.

Apart from above projects, the envoy said that review studies of some more hydropower projects including 4,320 MW Dasu Hydropower Project are underway. He said, “We hope that the on-time completion of these projects would help government of Pakistan to cater for the power shortfall up to some extent”.

The Korean ambassador further said that though Pakistan had confronted several problems in recent years including security challenges, power shortages and other issues but he is fully convinced that Pakistan can rise again. At the resumption of Pak-US Strategic Dialogue in Washington DC on January 28, 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Pakistan have the potential to become a future economic tiger with economic reforms and the inclusion of women and minorities. Dr Hwan said that he is fully agreed with him”.

He said that Pakistan had a lot of potential. God has given Pakistan the second highest mountain in the world as well as a deep sea like the Arabian Sea adding that Pakistan has a strategic location, abundant natural resources and fertile land with good irrigation system. He said Pakistan has a big population of 200 million and around 60 percent of them are young people. Pakistan also has talented and skilled labour.

The envoy said, “I have already spent almost three years in Pakistan and will return to Korea in mid-May. But I will do my best to keep supporting Pakistan even after I depart. I will do this by presenting a good image of Pakistan to my Korean friends and encouraging Korean investment and trade with Pakistan at various forums”.

Dr Hwan further said that the National Foundation Day of the Republic of Korea is celebrated on October 3rd every year and to encourage our growing bonds, the embassy labeled October as Korean month and marked it with more than 20 events in Oct 2015.

About Pakistan infrastructure development, the Korean ambassador said that at present, Lowari Tunnel construction is underway by Sambu Construction and Hyundai Engineering Korea is building a shipyard at Karachi Seaport as well. Korean companies are ready to participate in other infrastructure development projects if the government of Pakistan would offer attractive projects to them, he added. The constructions of M-2 Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas carriageway was also constructed by the Korean companies.

The envoy said Pakistan is a priority development partner of Korea and is receiving a substantial amount of Korean Official Development Assistance (ODA) since 1991 adding that there are two kinds of ODA, one aid-grant plus projects and second Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) soft loan having nominal interest rate of 0.1 percent with maturity period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years in general. He said till 2014, Korea had provided about over 42 million dollars aid-grant to Pakistan for various social welfare projects.

The envoy further said that the government of Pakistan and Korea agreed to utilise the EDCF financing in the areas, which had high potential to uplift Pakistan’s economy such as Information Technology (IT), transport infrastructure, agriculture, energy, health and education.

The ambassador said that a state-of-the-art IT Park project is under process, which would be established in Islamabad. The feasibility study of Islamabad IT Park would be completed by Korean experts soon and it would provide small and medium size companies (SMEs) and start-ups in the IT industry with office spaces equipped with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and security facilities.

About the prospects of expanding Pak-Korea trade relations, the Korean ambassador said that the present trade volume is not reflecting the potential. In fact, Korea-Pakistan trade partnership after touching the two-way trade volume at $1.623 billion in 2012 has come down to $1.074 billion in 2015, a decline of almost 34 percent in three years. He suggested that the decline in trade required urgent attention from both the sides. He said the main hurdle is the absence of free trade agreement (FTA) between Korea and Pakistan, non-availability of proper trade related information and lack of understanding about most promising areas of cooperation are major possible reasons of this decline.