Lahore could soon see Korean-made trains running on its railways. Visiting President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Shahzad Ali Malik told The Koreas Times that the city plans to import locomotives from Korea Railroad (Korail) and could sign a purchase agreement with state-owned rail operator.
“The investment will be initially very small. If we get to purchase locomotives, it will cost about $6 million. It will grow to a substantial amount.” The railway deal would take some time to materialise as Malik and his Korean counterparts are currently only in talks.
Malik was on five-day visit to Korea ending Thursday as part of tour to Korea, China and Vietnam. He visited Korail’s plant in Gyeonggi Province and met with company officials.
Another purpose of his trip was to promote more bilateral trade between Pakistan and Korea. Malik said trade volume including imports, exports dropped to $755 million in 2010 from $865 million in 2009.
Malik, whose major business interest is rice, expressed his wish to export rice to Korea. He said Korean government receives bids from rice exporters in September to allocate rice import quota and Lahore is willing to join the tender with its non-fragrant long grain rice.
Malik said he is looking for direct investment from Korean companies into Lahore’s light engineering industry, power sector and food processing market. One example would be small-scale hydropower projects on rivers in Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2011.
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