Adnan Khashoggi 'to Invest in Grand Canal Project'
Saudi entrepeneur Adnan Khashoggi
President-elect Lee Myung-bak has reportedly contacted the billionaire Saudi arms dealer and businessman Adnan Khashoggi, who has expressed an interest in investing in Lee’s cross-country canal project and the Saemangeum development project. A Lee aide said a member of the presidential Transition Committee met with a representative for Khashoggi, who is said to be planning a press conference on his decision to invest in Korea.
Khashoggi started his career as an agent for Lockheed Martin and built his fortune as an arms dealer and oil exporter. In 2000, he planned to build an international tourism and leisure complex in Ahnmyeon Island, South Chungcheong Province, but the plan was thwarted. According to a Lee aide, Khashoggi had close relationships with former president Park Chung-hee and is forming new business ties with the president-elect, whom he “regards as a second President Park.”
Lee also contacted multinational investors based in the U.S. and China, who are reportedly willing to put US$10 billion into Korea.
Meanwhile, Lee will send Sagong Il, head of the national competitiveness special committee of the presidential Transition Committee as an envoy to the Davos Forum. He will also dispatch Yoon Jin-shik, a former minister of commerce, industry and energy, to Japan. Yoon, the head of an investment taskforce in the competitiveness team, will brief Japanese lawmakers about the new government’s policy directions.
Lee also sent a letter to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, asking him to choose Korea’s first supersonic military trainer jet T-50 as the United Arab Emirates’ next-generation trainer aircraft.
(englishnews@chosun.com ) |
