Sangho Lee, Director of Geonsanyeon, Publishes 'Order Winning Myth and Earnings Shock'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The Korea Research Institute for Construction Industry announced on the 30th that President Sangho Lee has published his final book during his tenure, titled "Order Winning Myth and Earnings Shock."

The book organizes the history of Korean overseas construction from the perspective of the "repetition of order winning myths and earnings shocks." It particularly focuses on the earnings shock experienced by Korean overseas construction companies in 2013, analyzing the structural causes and summarizing lessons learned while proposing alternatives for system reestablishment.

President Lee is an expert in overseas construction, currently serving as co-chair of the Construction Industry Vision Forum and chairman of the KOTRA Overseas Order Winning Council. In 1995, he earned a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Administration with a dissertation titled "A Study on the Process of Promoting the Korean Government's Overseas Construction Policy." His doctoral thesis focused on overseas construction policy research during the early 1980s "Middle East Construction Boom." In the mid-1990s "Southeast Asia Construction Boom," he conducted overseas construction research at the Korea Research Institute for Construction Industry. During the 2010s "Overseas Plant Construction Boom," he served as head of the Economic Research Institute at GS Construction. Regarding overseas construction, he has been engaged in research, government policy advisory, and practical work at universities, research institutes, and overseas construction companies for nearly 30 years since the early 1990s. The newly published Order Winning Myth and Earnings Shock is a comprehensive summary of his research and experience.

In 2010, Korea's overseas construction order amount reached a historic high of $71.6 billion (approximately 85.6694 trillion KRW), but it sharply declined to $22.3 billion last year. As overseas construction order performance continued to fall, the Moon Jae-in administration repeatedly introduced "measures to revitalize overseas orders," but these efforts have shown little success. Korean overseas construction companies have adhered to "selective order winning focused on profitability," refraining from aggressive overseas orders unlike in the past. This is because, after experiencing the ups and downs of overseas construction for a long time, they realized that profitability and global competitiveness are more important than order volume.

"Order Winning Myth and Earnings Shock" concludes that sustainable growth of Korean overseas construction requires "scale-up" and "system reset." President Lee emphasized, "Efforts to expand investment development projects instead of contracting projects, and to extend beyond traditional plant engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) projects to earlier stages such as conceptual design, basic design, front-end engineering design (FEED), or to operation and maintenance (O&M) projects after construction, must continue to scale up," adding, "A system reset is necessary to enhance global competitiveness."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.