Korea Times
Lee Jin-woo
2/9/2007
A group of 17 people including high-level executives from Moody’s Investors Service and Goldman Sachs made a half-day visit to the joint industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Friday, the Ministry of Unification said.
Three executives from each company were accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economy as well as the Ministry of Unification.
The short trip was part of the foreign rating agencies’ annual meeting on South Korea’s sovereign rating.
During the visit, they received a briefing from officials of the Kaesong Industiral District Management Committee, which manages the site’s development process, and looked around the first completed district of the industrial complex.
The government has had to hold off its plan to sell the first batch of some 1 million pyong (3.3 million square meters) of land to South Korean companies that wished to move into the industrial complex.
The plan was initially scheduled in June last year, but was suspended indefinitely due to signs of a North Korean missile test. Pyongyang pushed ahead with its plan and test-fired seven ballistic missiles on July 5, which was then followed by its first-ever nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Moody’s upgraded South Korea’s rating to A3 in March 2002, its seventh-highest investment grade.
Officials, however, were cautious about the chances for a higher sovereign rating.
“It remains to be seen whether Moody’s will upgrade South Korea’s credit rating, but it’s true that they react quite sensitively to geopolitical issues related to North Korea,” said a ranking official of the finance ministry.
Another official expected a positive effect from the visit, saying “The outcome of the ongoing six-party talks in Beijing is most important without a doubt, but this trip will help officials of the foreign rating agencies have a better understanding of our efforts and faith in inter-Korean business projects.”
The number of North Koreans working for the 18 South Korean firms at the industrial complex surpassed 10,000 late last year.
By 2012, the complex is expected to house about 2,000 South Korean manufacturers employing about half a million North Koreans, according to the Ministry of Unification.
