Canals — that is, if one is a billionaire arms dealer like Adnan Khashoggi. It seems that certain foreign companies and mutual funds have caught canal fever and sent letters of interest regarding LMBs dream project. Naturally companies in the Netherlands and Germany that have experience in canals are interested and now it seems that even a Dubai mutual fund is asking about both the canal and failed Saemangeun project. One notes the JoongAng Ilbo spins this story as if money has been offered already but the firms are ,for now, just curious.
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7 Comments
That’s globalization for ya — money being poured into the boondoggle-feed-trough can be smelled all around the world.
Are they interested in investing or getting construction, equipment, and management contracts?
It reads like a fishing expedition, just to see what the catch is.
Who would want to invest in the Canal? Heck even insiders at jaebol construction companies are privately saying that the canal is unprofitable and that they’re going along only because it’s a “Presidential order.”
Of course, one cannot discount the possibility that the organization responsible for implementing the canal might be tempted to massage the numbers in order to make investing in the canal more attractive to foreign investors.
I’m just thinking outside the box here and wasn’t the original reason why Roh proposed the capital move was the overdevelopment of Seoul and the overall Kyonggi region at the expense of other regions?
I’ve been driven to one end of the country to the other (not too hard given the freak’in small size of nation in question) and I noticed that the interstate (or interprovince?) roads are pretty dang narrow, considering that the roads in Seoul, for example, are pretty dang wide.
Let’s look at the geography of Korea. Lots of hills and mountains that make lots of wide roads and rail lines impractical within the interior of the country, so where do you concentrate your industry? In coastal areas, right? Where does that leave the interior of the country? Underdeveloped, unfortunately. For any of you who have gone to Taegu, it’s got more of a 70’s feel then a Seoul or a Pusan.
Well, at the end of the day creating canals within the interior of your country may or may not be good in the long run. I don’t know. I’m not an expert. However, the development of the interior of South Korea may be one of the factors that the powers that be are considering.
#5.
I don’t believe building a canal through Korea will lead to a renaissance of Korea’s interior. If the provinces were to be developed one has to decentralize this country, in terms of the government, economy, and education. But that’s easily said than done.
Aslo, from your description, I believe you took the “국도” instead of the highways, which I might add are “pretty dang wide.”
mins0306,
Overall, this canal project smells pretty pork barrelish at the end of the day. I was just introducing some alternative rationale considering that no one else had mentioned it.
Personally, I think in order for Korea to enter into the next phase of growth they need to beef up their services sector, reformed management methods (away from confucian cronyism and kowtowism), develop financial markets that provide capital to small and mid-sized businesses (through VC and private equity funding sources), and break-up huge conglomerates so their subsidaries have a chance to grow. The split of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Automotive was the best thing for the two companies overall. At least now Hyundai Heavy doesn’t have to fund the next Chung Mong-koo goose egg through their profitable ship building business. Samsung Insurance could probably use the same type of discipline instead of seeing their cash flow go out to fund the semiconductor business when it hits one of it’s slow cycles.
Overall, I don’t see the answer in pouring money into pork projects. I see the answer in changing Korea’s business mindset and disciplines, which may be, at the end of the day, infinitely harder (but infinitely cheaper) to do then building a canal.