ULSAN < invest Korea

The Ulsan Port Authority held a special lecture session under the theme of facilitation of the North Pole Route and Ulsan’s counterplan.

The lecture was moderated by Professor Hong Sung-won at the Youngsan Unviersity, an expert on the North Pole Route.

Professor Hong conducted research on themes related to the Arctic Ocean, including commercial potential of the North Pole Route and resource development in the Arctic Ocean.

During his lecture, Hong talked about current status of the North Pole Route, Ulsan’s promising industries and products, city’s counterplan and more.

He noted that to reduce logistics cost, information gathering and objective data analysis are required.

According to Hong, crude oil, steel, refined oil products, coal, wooden products, automobile and fertilizers can be transported through the North Pole Route. He added that Ulsan Port has a high possibility to become an energy hub in the Northeast Asia.

In the short term, he suggested that Ulsan needs to conduct an accurate environment analysis on the North Pole Route and Arctic Ocean, build cooperation with the central government, identify and analyze promising businesses (transportations and imports), estimate initial costs and request supports from local governments.

In the mid-term, consistent policies to develop prospective industries, business models for logistics and transportation industry and cooperation between the public and private sector are required.

Professor Hong also noted that Ulsan needs to contribute to industrial development by ensuring profitability of promising industries, maximize benefits from the North Pole Route and foster the Ulsan port as an oil hub in Northeast Asia in the long term.

** This article was translated from the Korean.