An unusual couple of days, seeing President Lee Myung-bak on both of them. First it was the annual Garden Party held in the grounds of the Blue House for the diplomatic corps. Sadly there are simply too many people there for us all to be able to have much of a talk with the President, but all his advisers are there and a lot of senior Koreans, so a great opportunity to network. I find that the President’s advisers see it much the same way, and hunt me out, just as much as I search for them in the crowds.
The following day, I again met the President when we were in attendance for the opening of the new Incheon Bridge, a prominent sight when you land at or take off from Incheon airport. The bridge is the longest in Korea, and in the top ten in world, and the reason for my involvement is that AMEC, the UK engineering and project management company, was the lead contractor and is justly proud of its achievement in delivering a landmark construction on time and on budget. They headed up what was the first public/private partnership in Korea to be led by a foreign company. Samir Brikho, the company’s CEO, was there as well and has a clear concept of the potential importance of Korea for AMEC, especially in terms of partnerships in the energy field. I was able to read out a message from Gordon Brown congratulating all concerned with the bridge. So much of our work to help British business is quietly done behind the scenes, and it’s nice to be able to show good public support in this way.
Posted at 22:35 20 October 2009 by Martin Uden | Comments[0]
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