Business & Finance Club - Dubai: South Korean power equipment manufacturer Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction said yesterday it has signed a 4.7 trillion won ($3.9 billion - Dh14.31 billion) deal with the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) to provide a nuclear reactor to the UAE.

A Korean consortium led by Kepco won a mega deal worth $18.6 billion last December from the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation to design, build and operate four 1,400-megawatt reactors by 2020 in the UAE. Other members of the consortium include Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company and Samsung C&T Corporation.

"We will contribute to the export of more Korean-built reactors after completing the first global project in cooperation with Kepco," said Park Gee-won, president and CEO of Doosan.

The UAE is looking to South Korea as a prominent business partner. In May, General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, hailed the deal signed with South Korea to build four nuclear plants in the UAE. Shaikh Mohammad referred to it as the "largest deal in the history of the two countries".

Korean firms signed deals worth more than $26 billion in the Middle East and Africa in the first half of this year, a majority of them coming from the UAE, according to data from the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KoTra).

Eung Chun Oh, regional president of KoTra, said: "I'm very happy to learn the news of Doosan signing this contract. It will help strengthen bilateral relations between Korea and the UAE."

Eung added that Korean companies would also be interested in bidding for railway projects in the UAE and the region.

Previous successful bids by Doosan in the UAE include a mega desalination plant order worth $800 million. On July 31, 2008, Doosan announced that it had signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Shuweihat Desalination Plant, planned to be constructed in Abu Dhabi.

Some of the biggest names in worldwide construction tendered for the Shuweihat 2 IWPP (Independent Water and Power Plant), and the fierce competition to secure a slice of this $2.5 billion project by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority won by GdF Suez.