A slew of top Korean companies including Samsung are looking at investment opportunities in Los Angeles, according to the city mayor, who is in Seoul this week.
“We talked with some Korean firms about plans to invest in infrastructure in Los Angeles in the airport, public transportation and hotel areas,” said LA Mayor Eric Garcetti in an interview with The Korea Herald on Monday.
Samsung C&T, for instance, is looking into opportunities to invest in solar power projects, and railway and airport construction in the Los Angeles area, Garcetti said.
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Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor |
“It was a good chance for me to explain how the process works as they haven’t done many construction jobs in the U.S.,” the mayor said.
This was not the first time the mayor has met the Samsung C&T executives as they had already visited him in Los Angeles to discuss the solar power and construction projects. This time, they signed a pact to hold a monthly meeting of working groups for further cooperation.
Samsung had been involved in a solar power project in California in 2010 but sold the business right to local developers in the following year.
Garcetti also met with the chiefs of Hanjin Group and Hyundai Group.
Hanjin chairman Cho Yang-ho is a close friend to the mayor who is pursuing a renovation project of its Wilshire Grand Hotel. The project, to be completed by 2017, is expected to create 11,000 jobs and $800 billion in tax revenue.
“We asked for continued investment from Hanjin Group in real estate, airport and port (projects) in the city,” he said.
Garcetti also plans to meet with Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group on continued investment for the city’s port projects.
Korea is the third-largest trading partner of Los Angeles and its firms have a growing presence in the city. Companies including Hanjin, Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Lotte, and CJ have created around 2,200 jobs in Los Angeles, according to the mayor.
As a mayor of the most multicultural city in the U.S., he also talked about the growing Korean pop music culture, also called K-pop.
“The potential for K-pop is huge in the city. Contrary to general expectations, the Asian teenager fans in the city are actually less than half the total fans. More fans are from black, white and Latino communities and they are now becoming very mainstream in the city,” he said.
By Shin Ji-hye (
shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
