□ Korea Eximbank (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Yong Hwan Kim) announced that the Bank hosted the JBIC-Korea Eximbank Joint Seminar on June 24 at Hotel Shilla to commemorate the Bank’s 35th year of establishment.

□ The seminar was attended by approximately 100 officials including Japanese Ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi, General Director of JBIC Koichi Yajima, and representatives of major overseas plant exporters in Korea and Japan.

□ Under the seminar topic of Financing Opportunities for Joint Entry into Overseas Markets, participants discussed cooperation between Korean and Japanese companies and the role of export financing in overseas mega projects such as nuclear power plant and resource development. Financing cooperation between Korea and Japan was also discussed in-depth.

□Japanese Ambassador to Korea Muto Masatoshi stated, “The seminar is timely as business cooperation between both countries is increasing. If we can efficiently integrate the strong finance capabilities of Japan and competiveness of Korean companies, we would be able share enormous benefits. Therefore, the Korea-Japan FTA must be concluded to support such activities.”

□ Chairman Kim stated, “In the past, Korean companies and financial institutions grew by learning core plant technologies and finance expertise from Japan. This seminar will solidify our relationship as strategic economic partners as we set new paradigms in various sectors including financing cooperation.”

□ An official from Korea Eximbank stated, “With projects in the plant market growing in scale, it is difficult for a single financial institution to take full charge of a project. As such, it would be greatly beneficial to establish a close bilateral financing partnership with Japanese financial institutions which have high capital liquidity and strong financing capabilities.”

□ After four MOUs for mutual cooperation were concluded between Korea Eximbank and JBIC, JBIC participated in 6 projects promoted by Korea Eximbank with USD 2.3 billion in cooperative financing.

○ The two institutions are currently promoting cooperative financing for eight projects and anticipate greater project progress after strengthening cooperation through this seminar.