President Lee Jae Myung (seventh from left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (eighth from left) on April 20 pose for photos at a bilateral business leaders' dialogue at the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi. (Cheong Wa Dae)

By Lee Dasom

President Lee Jae Myung's state visit to India has broadened the scope of bilateral industrial cooperation to cover more sectors like steel, shipbuilding and digital.

Entrepreneurs from both countries attended a business forum and other related events, where 20 memorandums of understanding (MOU) were signed along with export deals worth a combined USD 48 million between companies of both countries.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources in Seoul on April 21 said it hosted the Korea-India Business Forum the previous day at the exhibition center Bharat Mandapalm in New Delhi.

President Lee attended the event along with 250 prominent Korean executives including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, POSCO Chairman Chang In-hwa and HD Hyundai Group Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun, in addition to 350 Indian counterparts.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-Kwan and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal were also there.

Both sides signed the 20 private MOUs on areas with higher demand for cooperation such as steel, shipbuilding, digital and energy.

As part of the deals, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering signed a cooperation MOU with NSHIP TN, an Indian special purpose entity, and Sagarmala Finance Corp. to build key infrastructure needed for investment to set up a new shipyard in India and launch a joint venture.

Hyundai Motor decided to team up with TVS Motor, an Indian manufacturer of three-wheeled vehicles, to jointly develop ecofriendly versions of such vehicles suitable for the Indian market and help distribution there.

The next day, the ministry and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency hosted another round of the business event at the hotel Oberoi in New Delhi. Forty Korean and 100 Indian companies in fields like manufacturing, Hallyu (Korean Wave) and high-tech sectors attended and signed 14 export contracts worth a combined USD 48 million.

"The government will provide all necessary institutional support to usher in a new turning point for bilateral economic cooperation," Minister Kim said. " We will actively back the creation of more business opportunities for companies in both countries."

dlektha0319@korea.kr