“We strive to do our utmost to carry out port policies designed to raise the nation’s overseas standing by continuously developing ports as a national basic infrastructure and transforming them into strategic centers for national economic development,” said Kim Jin-sook, director general for the Port Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM).

The following are excerpts of a written interview between NewsWorld and Dir. Gen. Kim in which she spoke of the current major port policies, future vision, and detailed tasks.  

Question: Will you introduce our readers to the major tasks the MLTM’s Port Policy Bureau has been implementing during this year?

Answer: The foremost things at the Port Policy Bureau have been implementing during this year are the development of such ports as Busan Port and Ulsan Port, differentiating each from the other according to their own characteristics so that the ports may be fostered as strategic centers for the development of the national economy. 

Busan Port, which ranked fifth in the world in terms of container handling capacity and second in transshipment, is continuously expanding its port infrastructure to further step up its standing. 

Specifically, we continue to undertake projects to secure piers and transportation facilities in its hinderlands. Four piers (built under Phase 2-3 project) were put into service this past January; a railway leading to the port in the southern area was opened to traffic last month; a project to construct two piers(built under Phase 2-5 project) was launched in August 2012; and a truck road will be built during the period between February 2010 and February 2014.

Waterways will be dredged from 15 meters to 16 meters in depth so that containerships with a capacity of more than 10,000 TEU can freely come to and from the port; The bunkering station and dry dock for repair are being pushed as part of efforts to help the Busan New Port offer one-stop services. 

The government is also undertaking a project to secure an exclusive oil storage and transshipment infrastructure at Ulsan Port and developing regional hub ports such as Pyeongtaek/Dangjin Port and Saemangeum New Port. 

In order to create added values through ports, the government is also striving to continuously secure more port distriparks. As of September 2012, distriparks it has set up covers 1.62 million square meters in size, with an additional 110,000 square meters to be secured by year-end. 

In particular, Mexichem is to invest roughly 250 billion won in the 130,000 square-meter distriparks of Gwangyang Port in accordance with an MOA signed this past February. Attracting such foreign investors will likely greatly boost cargo volumes. 

Such businesses as exhibition, housing, and tourism on top of processing, storage, and manufacturing were given the green light within the distriparks to make them self-reliant. The environment surrounding the ports will be made beautiful, and marina and cruise port will be made available to meet the rising public demand for marine tourism and leisure in accordance with the spread of a five-day workweek system. 

We’re now set to work on Busan Port as part of efforts to transform ports with favorable geological locations and rich tourism resources such as Busan, Incheon, and Jeju port into ones matching globally renowned tourism ports. During this year, we’ve launched projects to develop cruise ports and international passenger terminals in Busan, Incheon, and Jeju port. Six hub marina, each capable of accommodating more than 300 yachts and four smaller ones, will be constructed. These are part of efforts to expand infrastructure for increasing the maritime leisure population.

The MLTM is also carrying out the leading project of redeveloping Busan North Port; the establishment of green ports designed to cope with climate change; a project to prevent the occurrence of port disasters; and support for Korean contractors wanting to make inroads into foreign port construction markets.

Q: Of late, a ceremony took place to celebrate the signing of a deal to integrate the operation of Busan Gamman and Shingamman Dock logistics facilities. Will you comment on the establishment of the projected integrated company, which is to be inaugurated early next year?

A: As a controversy has been mounting over the balanced development of Busan North Port and New Port, caused by North Port’s worsening business conditions such as a drop in cargo handling charges, caused by the transferring of cargoes to New Port, related companies have been pushing for an integration of the operation of the ports on a voluntary basis to ramp up their competitive edge. In this regard, a deal was signed on Sept. 25.  

Related port officials and experts share the need for making port service companies larger and establishing a foundation for providing competitive conditions equal to that of New Port since North Port is inferior in terms of pier size, depth, and equipment. The upcoming integration is designed to raise the efficiency of port operation and stabilize their operation by reducing nonessential cutthroat competition among proprietors. The ministry plans to spare no efforts in providing policy support for raising ports’ competitiveness after integration is done.

Q:  What steps does your ministry take to cope with the need for boosting the capacity of piers and backwater facilities to address a surge in cargo volumes?

A:  Busan Port, the world’s fifth biggest container handling port, launched a full-fledged project to develop New Port to cope with a jump in container cargo volumes in 1996. Twenty-one piers with a combined capacity of 9.44 million TEU have been completed since then. 

The ministry will construct additional 19 piers including the West Container Piers(being built under Phase 2-5 project), which were launched this past August. The number of piers in Busan New Port are totally 40 piers by 2020 to raise its container handling capacity by as much as about 68 percent larger than the current one.

The ministry plans to expand the length of roads and railways to 45.2 km and 53.1 km in total by the target year so as to secure seamless cargo flows in hinderlands.

It plans to see the depth of waterways rise from the current 15 meters to 17 meters by 2016 to establish itself as Northeast Asia’s container hub port. 

It is no wonder Gwangyang Port has enough container handling capacity to handle current cargo volumes for the time being. We strive to focus on boosting the port’s cargo volumes by attracting such world-class logistics firms as Mexichem at its distriparks as well as reducing logistics costs and expanding such auxiliary facilities as container washing facilities.

Q: What steps does your ministry employ to address such enterprises’s difficulties in the port sector experience as a shortage of information and money-making when they attempt to make inroads into foreign markets?

A: We assist Korean firms seeking to undertake port construction projects and explore markets abroad by offering official development assistance (ODA) programs based on Korea’s experiences in port development and expertise. 

Following the establishment of the integrated roadmap for ASEAN maritime transportation, Korea has been undertaking such projects as feasibility studies and dispatching overseas port collaboration teams after signing MOUs on cooperation in the development of ports with emerging countries. Currently, Korea is working on feasibility studies on the development of ports in Cambodia, the Philippines, Honduras, and Uruguay. 

This past June, Vice Minister for Transport, Logistics and Maritime Affairs Joo Sung-ho visited Turkmenistan to provide support to Hyundai Amco’s bid to land a port construction project from the Central Asian country with which Korea had already completed a feasibility study. Korea has also struck MOUs on port development cooperations with Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Peru.

The ministry strives to push feasibility studies as planned and dispatch a delegation comprising of ranking officials to support Korean firms’ success in winning projects. During 2013, it plans to support feasibility studies with countries with which Korea signed MOUs during 2012 and invite officials of developing countries for on-the-job training to establish human networks. 

We’re now in talks on projects for collaboration of the development of ports such as the signing of MOUs with Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, and Libya as part of efforts to expand cooperations with  Central and South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. We strive to make available such policy loans from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and the Global Infrastructure Fund (GIF) to facilitate the smooth implementation of overseas port development projects.

Q: Will you explain your Bureau’s long-term policy vision?

A: We established the third Port Master Plan last year, containing the future port vision and details of port policies to be implemented by 2020. The vision calls for the creation of a value-added port space taking into account logistics, people, and the future. It set a policy goal of doubling the added value of ports by 2020. The plan contains detailed tasks calling for raising port handling cargo volumes from 1.21 billion tons in 2010 to 1.81 billion tons in 2020, the added value from 20 trillion won in 2009 to 40 trillion won in 2020, and the number of employees in the port industry from 480,000 in 2009 to 1 million in 2020. 

We plan to flesh out the ongoing tasks and explore new tasks in order to fulfill the vision and the policy tasks. In particular, we plan to work out port development policies in association with the securing of grains and developing of resources and marine plants by diversifying port functions as a national basic infrastructure. We devote ourselves in contributing to raising the nation’s overseas standing by developing Korean ports into ones competing with the world’s top three beautiful ports°™Sydney, Naples, and Rio de Janeiro.