NEW DELHI, February 27: Indian financial institutions (FIs) are not lending to Korean ventures in the country and this is adversely affecting their investment plans here, Korean ambassador Choi Dae-Hwa said today.``Initially one can understand the hesitation to finance our companies due to the economic crisis in Korea. But the inordinate delays on part of FIs to disburse finance are unjustified,'' he said while addressing a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here.He called upon Indian banks and financial institutions to disburse their scheduled payments to Korean firms while reffirming his country's commitment to the Indian market.Hwa particularly mentioned the problems being faced by LG Electronics whose project has been disrupted as ``disbursal from ICICI and other institutions has not been smooth''. LG had targetted a turnover of Rs 400 crore for its India operations in 1998, he said.Its plan was to complete the refrigerator production unitwith an installed capacity of two lakhs pieces per annum by the end of the year and start TV production with an installed capacity of four lakh units in May 1998.Meanwhile, Daewoo Power India Ltd, a unit of South Korea's Daewoo Corp said on Friday it would begin construction of a 1,070 megawatt thermal power plant in central India by mid-1998."We expect all our commercial market lenders to be finalised in two months. Construction will begin in May or June this year," Ki Zoo Kong, director, Daewoo Power India told reporters after a meeting of local representatives of Korea's chaebols with Indian businessmen. Daewoo's power plant, located in Korba in Madhya Pradesh, was estimated to cost $ 1.4 billion, he said. "Daewoo will invest $ 400 million as equity. Local debt willbe $ 270 million and foreign debt will be $670 million," he said, adding that a consortium of 11 local banks had agreed to lend to the project."We are waiting for the foreign lenders to be finalised," Kong said. He said it would take48 months to build the plant. Daewoo has awarded the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract to Swiss-Swedish heavy engineering company, ABB. Kong said ABB and two other companies, Korea Electric Power Corp and Italy's Ansaldo had bid for the operations and maintenance contract at the power plant.All agreements with state and central authorities had been signed, and the firm was close to finalising the coal supply pact, he added.
