Choi Kyong-hwan, Minister of Knowledge and Economy who recently wrapped the tour of 4 countries in the Eastern Europe and came back on October 18 said, “We made an unexpected headway with the negotiation with Turkey, and are now anticipating to make an IGA agreement, including the prices, during the G20 Seoul Summit.” He added that although the approval from the National Assembly should come first with the prices, breaking the deadlocked process of the negotiation was the biggest fruit of this visit.
That the IGA has been mentioned by the Minister himself in the middle of the working-level negotiation means there are substantive results between the two governments.
The Minister said, “Japan went to Turkey willing to wage all-out war with joined forces of both private sectors and the public sectors. We have decided to leave our negotiators stationed at Turkey until the agreement is sealed.”
According to the Minister, the 30% of the total expenses for the construction of nuclear power plants in turkey will be covered with the budget from the construction company, and the rest is planned to be supported from the project financing (PF) which is the first attempt in Korea ever. “To make the PF happen, we have to make the investment be able to draw a lot of attentions from capitalists and therefore we are now persuading the Turkish Government regarding the price issues."
The Minister also explained, “The Turkish Government mentioned letting Russia have the control of plants, and we made it clear that it is not even an issue to discuss. Giving the third party the right to manage is nonsense, and we have almost reached a compromise on this.”
“We figured how to introduce the gas that is going to be consumed in Korea,” he said about the results of the visit to Turkmenistan. Since the direct connection is impossible, he said Korea was looking to swap natural gas through Russia.
Regarding the preparation for the Business Summit which will be held along with the G20 Seoul Summit, Choi expressed his confidence saying, “We will make the G20 more about the networking than the short-term fruits, moving the core of the world’s economy into Korea.”
