South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s landmark state visit to Iran, accompanied by a large business delegation, has led to the two countries signing a flurry of MoUs (worth 5.2 trillion won) on infrastructure construction and energy projects.
President Park held summit talks with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on May 2. On the sidelines of the summit, the two countries signed a total of 66 MoUs, including 59 MoUs on economic cooperation, according to the Blue House.
South Korea signed MoUs and provisional contracts with Iran on 30 infrastructure and energy restoration projects, which could lead to contracts worth $37.1 billion.
The Blue House predicted that the value of the contracts could swell to as much as $45.6 billion if Korean companies won deals for the second phase of the projects.
By project type, infrastructure construction projects (e.g. railroad, highways and water resources management) are valued at $12.1 billion, power-related infrastructure restoration projects (oil, gas and electricity) at $31.6 billion and health and medical projects at $1.8 billion.
Major infrastructure projects include the $5.3 billion Isfahan-Ahvaz railroad project (including the purchase of trains) and the Tehran-Shomal freeway project (worth as much as $1.5 billion) connecting Tehran to the Caspian Sea.
