S. Korea to develop marine resources in indonesia

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has signed a deal with Indonesia to lease 25,000 hectares of coastal waters to cultivate seaweed that can be processed to produce bio-ethanol fuel, the government said Wednesday.

The letter of intent (LOI) signed between the Ministry for Food, Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries and its Indonesia counterpart permits local companies to
lease the waters free of charge.

"The LOI is significant since it will allow South Korea to use the
archipelago as an important overseas staging point for the production of marine
resources," said a government official.

The seaweed grown at the farm will be used to make commercial pulp products and
bio-ethanol that have become an important fuel source in the face of high crude
oil and gas prices.

He added the arrangement could also help South Korean companies to expand into
the Chinese market where demand for fisheries products are on the rise, and
overcome growing pressure to open the domestic market to imports.

Samsung C&T Corp. said it wants to operate the seaweed farm.

The Ministry, meanwhile, said that it plans to redouble efforts to help local
companies increase their presence in foreign markets and build production bases.
It said efforts are underway to develop a dedicated fund to help support such
endeavors by local companies.

yonngong@yna.co.kr

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