South Korea, U.S. Open Shipbuilding Partnership Center In Washington

According to Yonhap, South Korea and the United States opened the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC) in Washington to help carry out $150 billion in investment under the bilateral MASGA initiative aimed at reviving the U.S. shipbuilding industry. The center was launched two months after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on May 8. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the KUSPC is an unprecedented global cooperation platform for shipbuilding and shows South Korea's commitment to rebuilding the struggling U.S. shipbuilding sector. He said the center will speed up planned shipbuilding investment in the United States and called on the U.S. government to provide steady orders, incentives and regulatory easing. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it will look for cooperation opportunities in naval shipbuilding and help Korean firms enter U.S. shipbuilding and defense supply chains. South Korea and the United States also signed 15 MOUs in four areas: setting up Team Korea to support the shared growth of the shipbuilding industry, strengthening supply chain cooperation, workforce training and joint technology development. Team Korea includes the KUSPC, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Hanwha Ocean Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association and the Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering. MASGA is Seoul's Make American Shipbuilding Great Again initiative, one of the programs that helped South Korea secure a tariff agreement with the United States last year. Under the plan, Seoul has agreed to invest $150 billion to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry as part of a broader $350 billion investment commitment to the United States.