Last Year, Overseas Orders for Environmental Industries Including Solar Power Reached 1.5 Trillion Won... 5% Increase in One Year

Solar Power Plant (Reference Photo)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute announced on the 24th that the overseas market order performance through the environmental industry overseas expansion support project recorded approximately 1.4845 trillion KRW last year.

An official from the Ministry of Environment said, "This is an increase of about 72.5 billion KRW (5%) compared to the previous year, and despite the COVID-19 situation, large-scale project orders were continuously secured, achieving such results."

Since 2008, the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute have been enhancing the step-by-step customized overseas expansion support project and actively responding to external environmental changes such as COVID-19 to help domestic environmental companies secure overseas orders.

The Ministry of Environment has been implementing proactive support policies such as early establishment of non-face-to-face communication platforms and support for domestic and overseas quarantine costs, anticipating difficulties in discovering overseas projects due to COVID-19. As a result, last year, environmental companies succeeded in securing large projects such as the Poland waste incinerator construction project (490 billion KRW, POSCO Construction), Japan solar power generation project (119 billion KRW, Dohwa Engineering), and Indonesia industrial water supply project (77.6 billion KRW, Daejin Environmental Industry).

Additionally, achievements were made in delivering equipment to developing countries by small and medium-sized environmental companies, including the Egypt waste sorting and processing facility delivery (10.1 billion KRW, JST), Myanmar high-efficiency cookstove distribution (5.1 billion KRW, Ecoi), and Peru groundwater upper protection facility construction (2 billion KRW, Keunsan Technology).

The Ministry of Environment plans to strengthen step-by-step support from the early stage to the order stage this year to expand overseas exports of domestic companies.

In the early stage, using the non-face-to-face online communication platform established last year at the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute, export consultation meetings will be held regularly in cooperation with related overseas expansion organizations such as the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Through this, communication with overseas clients will be continuously strengthened. In addition, promising overseas environmental market analysis information will be provided, and support will be given for dispatching environmental delegations and inviting promising clients.

In the intermediate stage, support will be provided for establishing comprehensive plans (master plans) to discover promising countries' environmental policy improvements and projects using Official Development Assistance (ODA), and for preliminary feasibility studies to review the economic feasibility of individual projects. In particular, in line with the government’s Green New Deal policy, support will be expanded for establishing comprehensive plans to improve overseas waste management contributing to carbon neutrality and for feasibility studies related to climate change response, actively promoting Korean-style environmental management projects as models overseas.

At the order stage, the possibility of securing orders will be increased through support such as preliminary feasibility studies for preparing international bidding documents newly initiated last year and export finance support linked with international financial institutions. Furthermore, international joint local projects supporting local demonstrations to ensure that excellent domestic environmental technologies comply with environmental regulations and conditions of overseas target countries, as well as overseas export commercialization support projects tailored to companies such as local prototype production, will be promoted.

Kim Dong-gu, Director of the Green Transition Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Environment, said, "As the COVID-19 situation is expected to continue this year, we will implement various and active support policies for environmental companies facing difficulties in overseas expansion, and strive to globalize Korean-style environmental management project models linked to carbon neutrality and the Green New Deal."