South Korea and Singapore agreed Wednesday to join forces to clinch plant construction projects in third countries, the Seoul government said.

   Under a memorandum of understanding signed in Singapore, South Korea will include more Singaporean contractors for its overseas plant projects while Singapore will provide increased financial support for overseas projects won by South Korean firms, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

   The MOU was signed by South Korea's Vice Economy Minister Kim Jung-gwan and Chua Taik Him, head of International Enterprise Singapore.

   "The government believes this arrangement will help relieve financial difficulties faced by our plant construction firms while offering a chance for Singapore's plant and engineering industry to advance into the global market," the ministry said in a press release.

   The ministry said it will also lead to a "transfer" of South Korea's leading technology to Singaporean firms.

   The technology-for-finance swap comes as South Korean banks are no longer able to finance all overseas construction projects won by local companies, whose total orders jumped nearly eight-fold from US$8.4 billion in 2004 to $66 billion last year.

   Project financing provided by South Korean institutions only amounted to about $21.6 billion in 2010, according to the ministry.

   The Korea Federation of Construction Contractors said Tuesday that the country was ranked the seventh-largest contractor in the global construction market in 2010, up one notch from a year earlier, as the combined global market share of the country's 11 major construction firms reached 4.8 percent.

Source: Yonhap News (Sept. 7, 2011)