South Korean delegation sees tremendous opportunities
Bahrain is set for an influx of capital from the Far East after the head of a South Korean business delegation on a fact-finding mission to the Kingdom yesterday pledged to return in January with concrete details of substantial business deals.
In an interview with Bahrain Tribune, Kim Kil Wong - leader of a four-man team of experts gauging the suitability of Bahrain for investment by a consortium of South Korean development firms - revealed that visits to some of the Kingdom's highest profile projects had convinced him to return in the New Year to set up a permanent office.
He said: "We have looked at everything and when we return to Korea this week we will take back a lot of the things we have seen to other companies and come back with full force in January.
"We are going to come back with funding proposals for projects here on a joint-venture basis which means that Bahrainis will provide us with the land and they can build projects."
The consortium is also looking to invest in existing developments.
The delegation's trip stems from a meeting between Wong and Norman Nathan, the Goodwill Ambassador for the Bahrain business community with responsibility for Malaysia and other Asian territories.
Nathan told the Tribune yesterday: "The Korean delegation wanted to arrange an exploratory visit to see what projects are available for investors in Bahrain. Believe me - they have been here for just two days and they are very, very impressed by the amount of work there is available in Bahrain and the tremendous opportunities that they can see."
His work involves promoting Bahrain in a region where it has previously not enjoyed a high business profile.
He explained: "I am promoting Bahrain very heavily in Asia - because for a time in the region we only had a Bahraini embassy in China. Only very recently a Bahraini embassy opened in Bangkok. So otherwise a lot of people do not know about Bahrain and it's my job to change that."
He explained that the Korean visitors had been visibly impressed on visits to Lulu Island, Amwaj Island and Bahrain Financial Harbour, and revealed that the consortium studying the Kingdom was used to dealing with "mega-projects" of an even larger scale and could choose to invest in several Bahraini deals simultaneously.
The four-man delegation praised the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce's Hassan Kamal and the organisation's chairman Esam Fakhro for meeting them and demonstrating a keenness to forge bilateral relations between the Kingdom and their country, something not expected to be hampered by South Korea's lack of an embassy in Bahrain.
Today the delegation members are scheduled to visit the Durrat Al Bahrain development before returning to their Seoul base.
By Mark Summers Business Reporter
© Bahrain Tribune 2006
