Bulgaria, South Korea Consider Joint Shipbuilding Project

Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov and his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak have discussed the idea for a joint project for building ships for transporting compressed natural gas in the Black Sea.

Parvanov and the Bulgarian delegation visited earlier the largest shipbuilding yard in the world – owned by Hyundai Heavy Industries, and located in the city of Ulsan.

“This is an idea that could create an alternative to the supplies of natural gas not only for Bulgaria but also for the whole region, giving greater energy security to the EU,” Parvanov said in Seoul as quoted by BTA.

The Bulgarian President has expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the idea for a joint shipbuilding project had been discussed with experts from Hyundai, who had expressed their positive attitude for it.

The Presidents of Bulgaria and South Korea think the experts of the two countries should consider in-depth the feasibility of the project, including the potential participation of third parties.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has the largest shipbuilding yard in the world, which produces about 10% of all ships globally. A week ago, it received its largest individual order of all times worth USD 2,06 B for providing module components for the Australian project “Gorgona” (which is for natural gas extraction, and building a plant for liquefied natural gas.

The Bulgarian-Korean business forum is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 2009, where the Bulgarian Economy Minister Traicho Traikov and the Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tsvetan Simeonov are going to make presentations on the Bulgarian-Korean economic and investments relations.