Investment Denied After Presentation To Wrong Body

A South Korean construction company was denied permission to invest in a multimillion-dollar irrigation system because company executives presented their plan to the wrong ministry, a government minister said on Monday.

Moon Young-kyu, director of Hwashin Construction Co. Ltd., met on Monday with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to propose a $200 million investment into irrigation systems in the country.

Veng Sakhon, agriculture minister, said he would have accepted the plan if he oversaw the Water Resources and Meteorology Ministry, but his ministry does not make decisions over such infrastructure projects.

“We did not accept this plan because we don’t have any jurisdiction on this work,” Mr. Sakhon said.

In the same meeting, the ministry approved a business plan for the collection, packaging and export of cashew nuts by a team that came out of the Commerce Ministry’s startup incubator, MoC 101, and is backed by Hwashin.

Mr. Sakhon said he had encouraged Hwashin Construction not to be deterred by its failure to get approval for its irrigation proposal and instead focus on its collaboration in the cashew industry.

The plan did not describe how much money would be invested in the tree-nuts venture.

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