○ Cosmos Yachting of Greece to invest $10 million in Hyundai-Cosmos Yachting
○ A yacht building facility (13,000㎡) to be built at the Jeongok Marine Industrial Park in Hwaseong
-Planning to build 100 luxury yachts priced up to 50 billion won
○ Governor Nam Kyung-pil meets Greek Minister of Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis
-Proposing Korean businesses’ participation in the privatization of government-run businesses in Greece

Governor Nam Kyung-pil concluded a deal for $10 million worth of investment in his province by a Greek business during his visit to Greece and Italy, which he embarked upon with the aim of establishing a social economic hub and invigorating the local marine industry.

At 8:00pm on March 2, Mr. Nam Kyung-pil signed a joint venture agreement between the Gyeonggi-Do Office and Cosmos Yachting of Greece at the Divani Caravel Hotel in Athens in a ceremony attended by President Jordanis Hatziveroglou of Cosmos Yachting, Director Nikolaos Moysidis of the same business, President Do Sun-gi of Hyundai Yachts, and Vice Mayor Lee Hwa-sun of Hwaseong City among others.

In January last year, the two businesses established a joint venture named Hyundai-Cosmos Yachting, with Cosmos Yachting set to invest 11 billion won (=$10 million) in the joint venture under the said agreement. Hyundai-Cosmos Yachting will build a boatyard on a 13,075㎡ site in the Jeongok Marine Industrial Park in Hwaseong and produce 100 luxury yachts priced up to 50 billion won each year in connection with the lease businesses carried out by Cosmos Yachting.

Cosmos Yachting, an Athens-based business established in 1987, is currently operating in twenty European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden. It has expanded its business scope to yacht lease and marina port operation, in addition to yacht production and sales.

Hyundai Yachts, which was started from the Yacht Division of Hyundai Precision & Industries in 1975, became an independent corporation in 2008. It is the country’s largest yacht builder specializing in mid- and large-sized yachts. In 2012, it built the Gyeonggi Bada, a 100ft-long administrative boat belonging to the Gyeonggi Province.

Gyeonggi Province expects that the investment deal will serve as an occasion to stimulate demand for luxury yachts in the country and help the domestic yacht industry to make a foray into the Asian yacht market. It also hopes to see the formation of a yacht parts business cluster within the Jeongok Marine Industrial Park, as a yacht is composed of more than 10,000 parts.