Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to the president, said the odds of a Korean company winning the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP) are "50-50 if scored." Canada is set to announce the preferred bidder for the CPSP, worth up to 60 trillion won, early this month.
Kang made the remarks during a live broadcast at the open studio of the Chunchugwan press hall at the presidential office on Tuesday, saying, "There are many things Canada and Korea can do to create a win-win." He assessed that "Canada is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, and minerals, but lacks a manufacturing base using artificial intelligence (AI)," adding, "It is a country that becomes stronger by collaborating with us."
Regarding Germany, which is competing with Korea for the CPSP, Kang described it as "a leading nation in submarine technology and a core member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)." He added, "Canada will have to weigh its options within this framework." Kang also said, "I visited Canada twice, in January and June, and at the end I told the Canadian government, 'No matter how I think about it, I am convinced that we are a better partner than Germany.'" Kang has visited Canada in person as President Lee Jae-myung's special envoy for strategic economic cooperation to support Hanwha Ocean's bid for the CPSP.
With Hanwha Ocean and Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) locked in a close race until the final stretch, the announcement, originally expected at the end of June, has been slightly pushed back to early July. According to industry sources, the announcement date for the winner of the Canadian submarine project is being narrowed down to around July 1, Canada's founding anniversary, or just before the NATO summit on July 7.
Earlier, President Lee said during a briefing on the outcomes of his European tour on the 19th of last month, "In our comprehensive judgment, we are quite hopeful about the chances of winning, but it is not so easy to be optimistic."
