Koreas Set Up Joint Venture in Pyongyang
South and North Korea Friday inaugurated an inter-Korean joint venture textile company in Pyongyang.
It is the first time for the two Koreas to establish a company in the North’s capital and manage it together.
Seoul’s Andong Hemp Textile and Pyongyang’s Saebyol General Company each funded $5 million to set up the Pyongyang Hemp Textile Company.
Eight technicians and two managers from the South plan to stay in Pyongyang to co-manage the startup company.
``Our endless efforts to persuade the North over the past five years finally paid off,’’ Kim Jung-tae, president of the Andong Hemp Textile, told Yonhap News Agency. ``I think we opened the way for the South’s manufacturing industry that is on the decline to make a leap forward.’’
Kim will work as the representative director of the new company’s four-member directorate, two each from South and North Korea.
``We plan to cultivate hemp in eight provinces in North Korea by 2007,’’ Kim said. ``More than 160,000 people will be employed at hemp farms. In addition, more than 12,000 people will be hired to operate textile and paper-making companies.’’
Around 170 South Korean businessmen took a chartered flight from Seoul to Pyongyang via a direct route on the West Sea to participate in the inauguration ceremony that took place in Pyongyang’s Tongdaewon District.
Later in the day, the North hosted an investor relations (IR) session at a hotel in Pyongyang for the businessmen from the South.
``It is the first IR session being held in Pyongyang for South Korean businessmen,’’ Rhee Bong-jo, vice unification minister, said at a press conference in Seoul on Thursday.
The Korean Peninsula was divided into two entities in 1945.
South Korean presenters explained how to enhance inter-Korean economic relations, while their Northern counterparts focused on reporting the investment environment in North Korea.
