Woori Bank is exploring a partnership with Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-water, to support Ukraine’s water infrastructure reconstruction efforts.
Woori Bank CEO Jung Jin-wan met Wednesday with the head of K-water’s Ukraine recovery task force at the lender’s Warsaw branch in Poland, the bank said in a statement Thursday.
The two sides discussed forming a strategic partnership to jointly pursue water infrastructure projects in Ukraine and across Central and Eastern Europe.
The K-water task force, based in Kraków, Poland, is leading the state-run agency’s recovery initiatives in the region.
As part of the discussions, Woori Bank and K-water reviewed potential areas of cooperation, including financial support for the reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine’s water supply systems, joint development of new infrastructure projects across Eastern Europe and collaboration on the industrial city project in Horodok.
“We hope this partnership will bring hope to Ukraine and other war-affected regions in Europe,” Jung said. “Woori Bank plans to actively participate in postwar recovery and infrastructure building projects across the region.”
Governments, multinational organizations and corporations are increasingly moving to secure roles in Ukraine’s postwar recovery, with Korean financial and industrial players stepping up efforts to expand their presence in the region.
Jung has previously expressed Woori's ambition to play a leading role in Ukraine’s reconstruction, leveraging the Warsaw office — opened in April as the first Polish branch by a Korean lender — as a strategic base for broader European expansion.
During his visit, he emphasized to branch staff the importance of close coordination with K-water in the wider recovery effort and called for robust financial support for Korean companies operating in the European market.
jwc@heraldcorp.com
