Czech minister Vlcek to discuss energy and engineering in Asia, meet KHNP representatives

Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček will discuss strengthening cooperation in energy and engineering in Asia. He began the trip, accompanied by Czech business representatives, in Vietnam today, and will then travel to Japan and South Korea. In Korea, he will meet representatives of KHNP, the company that won the tender to build new nuclear units at Dukovany, as well as political leaders. They will continue talks on nuclear energy, ministry spokesperson Marek Vošahlík told ČTK. Vlček will be in Asia until next Friday.

"The aim of the trip is to continue talks on nuclear energy and expand economic cooperation between the two countries in trade and technology," Vošahlík said of the visit to Korea.

Vlček previously said he would also discuss the involvement of Czech companies in the project in Korea. Contracts signed so far secure a roughly 30% share for Czech companies. According to Vlček's earlier statements, achieving the targeted 60% is realistic.

In Vietnam, Vlček today met with his counterpart Nguyen Hong Dien and local business representatives. His schedule also includes talks with representatives of the state-owned company Vietnam Electricity and the Mong Duong 2 power plant, in which Sev.en Global Investments, part of entrepreneur Pavel Tykač's Sev.en group, holds a majority stake. In Vietnam, Vlček is also expected to meet with the management of automaker Škoda Auto, which this year opened a plant near the Vietnamese city of Ha Long with its regional partner and investor Thanh Cong Group to assemble Kushaq and Slavia cars.

In Tokyo, the agenda includes signing a memorandum of cooperation and talks with the city's governor, Yuriko Koike, on innovative technologies and start-ups. Vlček will also meet with a Japanese distributor of Czech games and visit the Red Tokyo Tower digital park. In Osaka, the minister will visit Expo 2025.

The government decided last July to build two new nuclear reactors. It chose an offer from South Korea's KHNP over one from French company EDF. Another bidder, Westinghouse, had already been disqualified from the tender. Elektrárna Dukovany II signed a contract with KHNP on 4 June, after the Supreme Administrative Court overturned a preliminary injunction issued by the regional court that had barred the contract from being signed.

The first unit at Dukovany is expected to be completed in 2036. The construction of new nuclear units in Czechia is expected to be the country's largest-ever contract. At current prices, the cost of the currently preferred plan to build two reactors at Dukovany is 407 billion crowns.