Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-water) has been recognized as one of Korea’s top state-owned firms according to an evaluation by the government due to the firm’s efforts to promote the 3.0 Program, the Ministry of the Interior announced on May 11.
The MOI, in its announcement, said K-water’s Total Care Service, in cooperation with 25 companies and organizations at home and abroad, has been able to guarantee SME functions, provide financial support and expand their marketing channels, all through integrate services, helping to expand around 120 billion won worth of sales from some 104 SMEs last year, while creating some 700 new jobs.
Acting President Lee Hak-soo of K-water said he thinks the selection of K-water for the honor is the result of its services being centered around people, which the company encouraged through management policies.
“We will be a representative firm, always listening to what people want and seeing everything with the eyes of the people,” the acting president said.
K-water’s Total Care Service is designed to provide support to SMEs in the water resources industry to grow their presence overseas in following ways: K-water’s support has been geared to help the SMEs expand their share of the global water market, which has been growing enormously, through exploration and the development of technology; K-water has been at the center of securing cooperation from 25 firms and organizations at home and abroad to intensely practice the government’s 3.0 core values; K-water has been providing tailor-made services for SMEs operating abroad in such areas as strengthening their capacity, financial support, guarantee their functions and expanding their marketing channels; K-water’s Total Care Service has been able to help expand the SMEs sales by around 120 billion won from 104 firms while creating some 700 new jobs.
K-water on May 2 signed an MOU with National Water and Wastewater Engineering Co. of Iran aimed at increasing tap water supply to Shiraz City and Bushehr City. Both cities are located in the southwest of Iran. Bushehr City has a population of 200,000 and Shiraz City has 1.8 million residents. Under the agreement, K-water will increase water pipeline capacity from the current 40 percent to around 80 percent at the cost of $60 million.
K-water will improve the design of the pipelines and install a scientific water management system to cut down loose water rates and thus reduce the cost of water supply management for NWWEC.
Before the agreement was reached, the Minister of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport had to travel to Iran in August 2015 to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart in Teheran, which was followed by K-water dispatching its experts to Iran to survey the situation. A group of Iranian officials also visited Seoul to discuss the details of what they wanted at a workshop.
The two governments agreed to work on solving water shortages in Iran by building a water treatment facility to turn sea water into “softwater,” with details to be worked out later. The two sides agreed to sign an MOU on May 3 on the construction of a hydro power dam upstream from the Karun River with Iran Water and Power Resources Development Co.
The projected Karun Dam will be some 130 meters high will be the first BOT project for Iran to be built at the cost of $500 million. The dam will produce 648 Mw of power when in operation with its four generating facilities turning out 162 Mw of power each. Some 2,251 GWh power generated annually will be able to supply power to 550,000 households in the nearby areas of the Karun River.
Officials of MOLIT said K-water will be able to export its smart water management system to Iran as the country’s economic sanctions have been lifted and the country is open to foreign companies to undertake various infrastructure projects.
K-water also hopes to export its smart water management system to other countries in the Middle East.
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