Korea Forest Service Provides 3.6 Billion Won Loan Support for Overseas Forest Resource Development to Expand Private Investment

Application and Support Procedures for Overseas Forest Resource Development Loans. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service announced on the 9th that it will provide a separate loan support of 3.6 billion KRW in policy funds to companies investing in overseas forest resource development projects.

The loan target projects include industrial and carbon credit afforestation, bioenergy afforestation, forest product processing facilities, and overseas afforestation land purchase projects.

Applications can be submitted through the Overseas Business Office of the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute by the 3rd of next month. Application forms can be obtained by referring to the announcement posted on the Korea Forest Service website and the Overseas Forest Information Service of the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute.

Project selection will be finalized through a first round of document review including business plans and interviews, followed by a second round loan review committee of the Korea Forest Service.

Selected applicants can receive loan funds in the second half of the year. Recipients can receive support for 60% to 100% of the eligible project costs at an annual interest rate of 1.5%, with a loan period of 2 to 25 years including a grace period and 3 years of equal repayment. However, since loan limits and terms vary by project, prior confirmation is necessary.

The overseas forest resource development project is implemented with the purpose of enabling domestic companies to secure timber resources stably through direct overseas afforestation, forest cultivation, and wood processing, considering the domestic situation where most timber is imported from abroad.

This year, the loan budget for this project totals 8.2 billion KRW (including additional secured budget), and in the first half of the year, the Korea Forest Service provided loans of 4.6 billion KRW to four companies including Murim P&P, Igeon Project, Woorim Energy, and the Korea Forest Cooperative Federation, promoting overseas afforestation projects in Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, and other regions.

Park Eun-sik, Director of International Forest Cooperation at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly changing international circumstances, difficulties in overseas forest resource development projects are increasing. The Korea Forest Service plans to continuously discover and promote support policies such as securing loan budgets and improving systems to activate overseas forest investment by domestic companies.”

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