South Korea and the United States plan to sign a pact on close collaboration in the energy sector this week, officials at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday.

On the sidelines of President Park Geun-hye’s summit diplomacy in the United States, Korea’s Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick will make a joint declaration on mutual aid on energy development with his counterpart later this week, according to the ministry officials.

While the new secretary nominee for U.S. Department of Energy Ernest J. Moniz is undergoing a congressional confirmation hearing, Acting Secretary Daniel B. Poneman is leading the department.

A ministry official said the coming tie-up is aimed at co-developing renewable energy sources and nurturing them into a new economic growth engine for the two sides, which had signed the bilateral free trade agreement.

Korea has set the goal of increasing the portion of renewable energy compared to the entire energy consumption of the country from the current 2.5 percent level to over 11 percent by 2030.

The Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry expects that the solar energy, wind power and water industries can become the backbone of the country’s future economy like today’s semiconductor and shipbuilding industries.

Officials share the view that it is important to continue efforts to reduce carbon emissions, while developing new green growth models that will ensure sustainable development “in close coordination with developed countries including the U.S.”

On Monday, Minister Yoon said Seoul has attracted foreign direct investments worth $380 million from seven U.S. enterprises such as the Boeing Company, Almost Heroes LLC and Curtiss-Wright.

“Boeing’s past investments were focused on sales of airplanes,” he said. “Now it plans to establish aircraft repair-oriented factories in Korea for the first time in history.”

He said Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, will likely be the venue for the factory construction, adding that Korea could become the Asia-Pacific logistics base of Boeing under the project.

“Almost Heroes LLC will mark the first foreign direct investment in Korea’s animation industry. Curtiss-Wright will inject $30 million into Korea to shore up its capacity in nuclear reactor valves,” he said.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)