The South Korean government will invest a total of 41.8 trillion won ($35.2 billion) in the enhancement of 12 new ports across the country over the next 20 years to meet growing cargo traffic, according to a plan unveiled on Monday.

The plan is a follow-up of the first one launched in 1997 to upgrade the country’s ports.

The new plan includes expanding cargo handling capacity at the 12 ports to 1.85 billion tons by 2040 from 1.32 billion tons in 2017, container handling capacity to 48.73 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 27.17 million TEUs in 2017, as well as fostering Busan New Port as the world’s third-largest port.

For the investment, the government will inject 16.08 billion won directly, with the remaining 25.77 trillion won to be raised from the private sector.

The government will invest 13.6 trillion won into upgrading Busan port alone. Located on the southern coast, Busan port is the country’s main sea gateway and also the world’s sixth busiest container port, handling 21.6 million TEUs last year. The port, however, remains far behind the world’s top two ports – Shanghai and Singapore, which are able to handle 42 million TEUs and 36 million TEUs, respectively. No.3 port Ningbo handles 26 million TEUs.

The government plans to develop Busan port as a “mega port” by adding 21 berths and making it capable of accommodating a 25,000-TEU vessel.

The country will also create two new ports – one in the southern resort island of Jeju and another in Donghae on the east coast, with a goal to develop new Jeju port as a major cruise stopover and Donghae port as a leading cargo port.

By Park Dong-min and Cho Jeehyun

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