South Korea’s Ministry Of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) will co-operate with local companies to develop a grain terminal in Cambodia.
MOF said in a press statement, “In order to develop a grain terminal in Cambodia, we will begin a feasibility study to determine an appropriate location, proper business scale, commercial viability, and how to fund the project.”
The project is a result of an agreement between the South Korean and Cambodian governments at the 2014 ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit in December 2014. The two governments agreed on developing a logistics system by sharing the Mekong River for continuous growth of grain industry in Cambodia.
MOF said, “Cambodia’s grain export is sharply increasing thanks to the government’s agricultural policy, but an effective logistics system to support the exports has not been prepared.”
MOF will establish a detailed business plan on developing a grain terminal business in Cambodia and attract local companies at the initial state to grow the business.
MOF said, “We recently signed a memorandum of understanding [MOU] with Korea Development Bank [KDB], South Korea’s largest provider of ship financing, to co-operate with overseas port investments. Given this, KDB will be able to participate in the project for assistance in financing.
“If a company uses policy-based loans provided by the Economic Development Cooperation Fund or Asian Development Bank, the company will be able to lower investment risks.”
MOF’s head of port investment co-operation, Lee Hee-young, said besides studying the grain markets, the ministry would deploy a private-public joint team to strengthen its co-operation with the Cambodian government.
Lee concluded, “MOF will source for other businesses such as grain processing factories to contribute to [the] economic growth of Cambodia.”
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
