ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: South Korean companies are keen to invest in thermal and hydel power generation projects in Pakistan to help the country meet its future energy demands.

This was stated by Ambassador of South Korea Shin Un, who called on the Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Asharf, here on Thursday.

Mr Shin said Korean investors were interested to construct 120MW Taunsa Barrage hydropower project and to provide different capacity mobile power units to Pakistan. He said that the Korean companies were also willing to put their money in other hydel power generation projects in Azad Kashmir and NWFP and wind power generation. He said that the Koreans had provided a loan facility of $45 million to Gujranwala Electric Power Company. The soft- term loan will be utilised to design, procure and install equipments with the technical assistance of Korea for the construction of seven 132/11KV grid stations.

The Korean ambassador said in this hour of economic hardship and energy shortage Korea stood with Pakistan not only to help in easing the problem but also to further strengthen the existing economic cooperation between the two countries.

He said that his country will welcome proposals from Pakistan related to power generation projects and will provide maximum financial and technical assistance in this regard.

Raja Pervez Ashraf, while appreciating the Korean offer, assured full support to facilitate the Korean investors to invest in hydel, thermal and wind power generation. He said that the proposals of Korean companies for Taunsa Barrage and mobile power units will be considered. He asked the ambassador to make a detailed presentation on the proposals next month.

He also asked the ambassador to promote Korean investment in other indigenous resources like coal to generate cheaper electricity. The minister said that Pakistan had a liberal and incentive-based policy to attract foreign investment.

Power sector in Pakistan, he said, had a great potential and all the projects were being processed on a fast track basis as a number of foreign investors had shown interest to establish power projects in the country through international competitive bidding. He said that the government was taking steps to completely end the load-shedding by Dec 2009.