PM assures South Korea on implementation of Posco project

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the implementation of the $12 billion Posco steel project in Odisha.

During the bilateral talks, Singh told Lee that there was progress on the Posco project, which has been dubbed as the single largest foreign direct investment in India.

"The two leaders also reaffirmed the importance of implementing the Posco project in the State of Odisha," said a joint statement issued after the talks between the two leaders.

Singh is understood to have raised the Posco issue at the meeting with Lee and told him that India would like to see the project being implemented early.

Later, at a media briefing, a senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official said that Singh and Lee did discuss Posco but "not extensively".

"We expressed that there is progress in the implementation of the Posco project" Sanjay Singh, Secretary [East], in the MEA told reporters here.

He pointed out that a number of government clearances have been granted to the project.

"The state government of Odisha is acquiring land for the project. There are certain legal issues involved that are being attended to. We hope that there is progress in the near future," the MEA official said.

Officials said nearly 2,200 acres has been acquired for the project by the Odisha government, which is nearly 60% of the total land required for the project.