Korea seeks to win railway construction projects in Paraguay
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, right, delivers President Yoon Suk Yeol's congratulatory letter to Paraguayan President Santiago Pena Palacios at the presidential office in Asuncion, Monday (local time). Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, met with Paraguay's new President Santiago Pena Palacios and the head of the South American country's senate to discuss a light rail transit business project in its capital, Asuncion, the ministry said Tuesday.
Won, who is also visiting the South American nation as a special envoy of President Yoon Suk Yeol to congratulate the new Paraguayan president on his inauguration, asked for the country's cooperation in supporting Korea's bid to build the public transportation system in the capital city.
“(The Korean government) hopes that the light rail project in Asuncion will be completed within (President Pena's) term so that the people of Paraguay can use it, while the special law is enacted to help Korean companies to secure business rights to expedite the project,” Won said.
The construction of light rail transit in Asuncion is a project that connects the 45-kilometers-long section of suburban Ypacarai to the capital city, with a total project cost of $600 million (802.8 billion won).
As a public-private partnership (PPP) project, the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation, the Korea National Railway, Hyundai Engineering, Kyeryong, LS Electric and Hyundai Rotem have all formed a consortium to win the bid.
The ministry already signed a memorandum of understanding with its Paraguayan counterpart to cooperate in the light rail transit project back in Sept. 2021. In the same year, the Paraguayan government introduced a special bill to promote the project, but it was rejected by the National Assembly and is currently pending.
Pena said he will give his support for the enactment of a special law to facilitate the smooth implementation of the public transportation project.
“The light rail transit business will be a symbolic project for modernizing Paraguay's infrastructure that will also help Korean companies to advance into the Latin American market,” Pena said.