Korea Electric Power Corporation

Workforce development is one part of production readiness.

In August, the government, In August, the South Korean government, Korea Electric Power Corp, KEPCO, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix signed formal power supply agreements establishing the infrastructure roadmap for the Yongin and Honam semiconductor megaclusters.

While the chip makers later rejected a separate KEPCO proposal in September to prepay 25 trillion won in electricity bills to fund the grid, The core supply commitments for the projects remain in place.

U.S. fab projects show the same pairing of job growth and infrastructure build-out.

Trained workers can support new capacity only when factories and their utilities are ready to run.

That said, from a government coordinating perspective, it would be beneficial, I believe, for the industry and for the government itself to have one overarching structure or one coordinating body that leads on the global markets and the exports, the financing pieces, the supply chain pieces, the policy pieces.

And I think that where we fall down in some ways compared to our counterparts, like if you look at how EDF operates out of France, you look at KEPCO out of Korea, is that we are not integrating these various elements into one export vehicle.

So almost like how I envision it is a persistent trade mission where all these pieces come together and everything is kind of aligned.

And so I know in the paper that one of the things I mentioned was Poland, right? There were four different visits to the same market within a year and a half.

think it enhances the value proposition for Canada.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I'd say in the other countries' examples, though, especially EDF, KEPCO, Rosatom, all of these, the company itself, the company might have shares in the public market, but it is largely controlled by the government of that country as well.

So there's a bit more maybe integration, whereas in Canada, even though the CanDo technology is owned by the government of Canada, I believe, um it's exclusively yeah yeah through by aecl it's exclusively licensed to uh atkins reala so there's a bit more i don't know of an arm's length approach i think in both canada united states where it's like it's understood to be a strategic priority but the actual technology is kind of in many ways controlled privately but anyways that's just a uh a thought for uh maybe a bit of a complication

South Korea's semiconductor expansion has encountered a financing problem after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rejected a proposal to prepay about 25 trillion South Korean won in electricity charges.

KEPCO sought roughly five years of payments in advance to help finance transmission and substations needed for expanding high-tech industrial clusters.

The utility itself carries about 210.7 trillion South Korean won in debt, while the government says timely electricity supply is critical to its semiconductor and artificial intelligence projects.

The dispute reveals a challenge extending far beyond South Korea.

And sticking with tech names, two names are making headlines today in Asia, and that's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Both companies have rejected a proposal by Korea Electric Power Corp, or KEPCO, to make a 25 trillion won or 23.6 billion Singapore dollar deal upfront payment to support power supplies for planned semiconductor mega clusters.

The two chipmakers told KEPCO that it would be difficult to accept the proposal following internal reviews.

And both companies were also unsure if such large upfront payments were necessary, with uncertainty over the long-term durability of semiconductor demand a concern.

And finally, some finance topics coming out of the tennis courts, and we are looking at the four major Grand Slams.

Vietnam's nuclear revival moves closer to implementation.

Vietnam's PetroVietnam and South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corporation have agreed to accelerate cooperation on civilian nuclear power development.

Including technology, investment, and financing.

The discussions move Vietnam's revived nuclear ambitions closer to practical implementation, although key technical and financial arrangements remain under negotiation.