Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea

01/20/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/19/2023 21:33

Minister discusses investment deals with global companies

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on January 18 the decision of world-leading Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas to invest USD 300 million in South Korea, to which the company is positively considering moving its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters to South Korea.

An investment deal ceremony was held in Davos, Switzerland, to mark the decision.

With the $300 million investment, Vestas plans to build a large-scale wind turbine plant in Korea for producing core equipment and parts to be exported to the Asia-Pacific region, which may well distinguish Korea as the region's innovation hub and investment foothold for global businesses.

As Vestas is the world's no. 1 wind turbine producer and supplier of over 160GW of wind power around the globe, this investment deal will contribute substantially to Korea's prominence as Asia-Pacific wind power generation hub as well as its domestic wind turbine distribution.

The Minister said that the investment is all the more significant considering the wind turbine market's great potential and the prospects of maximizing synergy with global renewable energy companies.

On January 19, Minister Lee met with the management personnel of German multinational science and technology company Merck and Swiss healthcare company Novartis, respectively, to discuss investment in Korea.

Merck Life Science CEO Matthias Heinzel shared investment achievements and future cooperation measures, revealing that Korea is one of the major candidate sites for the company's upcoming new plant for raw and subsidiary bio materials.

Mentioning his visit in October 2022 to the Merck Korea Life Science operational headquarters in Songdo, the Minister stated that it is meaningful to see the development of investment cooperation measures, and outlined Korea's various support programs and regulatory innovation plan to create the ideal bio-health investment environment.

Marie-France Tschudin, President of Novartis Innovative Medicines International and Chief Commercial Officer, said that the company is collaborating with a wide range of interested parties to heighten accessibility of innovative medical products for healthcare advancement, and requested Korea's pan-ministerial cooperation for investment in life science areas.

Minister Lee responded that the Korean government is making diverse efforts to enhance the healthcare and medical industry, stating that deeper cooperation with Novartis will help to successfully push bio economy 2.0 and create future growth engines.

MOTIE will continue to engage in activities to draw choice foreign investments in high-tech and supply chain sectors while striving to make systemic, regulatory improvements and further investment deal discussions.