Korea, Poland sign 33 MOUs, including 6 on nuclear energy

President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda attend the Korea-Poland Business Forum at a hotel in Warsaw, Friday (local time). From left are Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Federation of Korean Industries Acting Chairman Kim Byong-joon, Korean Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang, Yoon and Duda. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

WARSAW ― Korea and Poland signed 33 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) during a business forum attended by President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, Friday (local time).

Participating in the forum were more than 350 business leaders and government officials of the two countries, including an 89-member Korean business delegation that flew to Warsaw to ink partnerships with their Polish counterparts.

“The two countries are witnessing a new wave of their economic partnership, evidenced by the largest-ever defense export from Korea to Poland, nuclear energy partnership and other practical achievements,” Yoon said.

“The two countries need to expand cooperation not only in advanced industries such as aerospace, smart factories and eco-friendly energy, but also in defense and infrastructure sectors, just as Korean battery and material component firms have established Europe's largest battery ecosystem in Poland,” he added.

Duda noted that the economic partnership between the two countries are expanding in the fields of nuclear energy, defense and other industrial areas, adding that he believes this is the “starting point for the two countries' sustainable security cooperation.”

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during the Korea-Poland Business Forum at a hotel in Warsaw, Friday (local time). Yonhap

During the forum, businesses and institutions from both sides signed 33 MOUs in the fields of batteries, future mobility, nuclear energy, construction and hydrogen. Six of the MOUs were related to nuclear energy.

Korea's Hyundai Engineering and Poland's chemical firm, Grupa Azoty Police, signed an MOU to develop and introduce micro modular reactors, which generate up to 10 megawatts of power, in Poland. Korea's Doosan Enerbility inked MOUs on a nuclear power plant construction project with Polish energy firm Rockfin and equipment firm Famet.

Builders Daewoo E&C of Korea and Erbud of Poland agreed on partnerships in civil engineering projects related to a new nuclear power plant. The Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning and Poland's National Center for Nuclear Research signed an MOU on human resource exchanges, while Korea's power generation equipment firm BHI and Poland's ZKS Ferrum inked an MOU on the provision of nuclear equipment to Poland's Patnow nuclear power plant project.

Korea is seeking to export its APR-1400 nuclear reactors to Poland, while Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Poland's state-owned public power firm Polska Grupa Energetyczna and private power firm ZE PAK, signed a letter of intent to cooperate on a construction project for a nuclear power plant in Patnow, central Poland.

If finalized, Poland will be the third country to which Korea has exported its nuclear reactors, following Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

“Since the letter of intent between stakeholders and the government-level MOU on the Patnow project in October last year, the partnership is proceeding as planned without any setbacks,” senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Choi Sang-mok said.

During the forum, the Polish president said he proposed “opening the Korean food market to export Polish livestock products, vegetables and fruit and lowering import food regulations” and “expanding air routes between the two countries.”

“I discussed these issues with President Yoon and he promised to work on these matters in a proactive manner,” Duda said.