PRESIDENT Arroyo got $751 million in proposed investments in agriculture, energy and infrastructures, plus an employment potential for some 13,000 Filipinos.

This came out of her official visit to South Korea which ends today with her attendance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit at the island resort of Jeju.

Arroyo will fly to Moscow later today.

Nam Ho Cho, Hanjin Heavy Industries chairman, reiterated his company’s commitment to expand their business in the Philippines by completing the $2 billion shipyard in Tagoloan in Misamis Oriental.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said Hanjin presently employs 16,000 Filipinos in its Subic shipyard and is training 19,700 more for Subic and Tagoloan.

Arroyo also received Cheil Jedang Corporation chair Kyung Shik Sohn and CEO Jinsoo Kim who confirmed their intention to invest $49 million more in a Davao del Sur production plant for Xylose, a natural sweetener from coconut shells which would generate at least 1,000 jobs.

Fajardo said CJC, which is in food, retail, chemicals, industry, entertainment and financial services products, has a $7.5 million plant in San Rafael, Bulacan producing animal feeds.

Arroyo also received late Sunday the executives of M. Castle led by its chairman Sang Soo Shin who discussed plans for a retirement home and "high-class recreation facility" in the Philippines for Koreans.

The President also met SK Engineering and Construction CEO, S.K. Yoon, who expressed interest in the telecommunication industry in the Philippines which has one of the biggest consumer coverage in Asia with at least 60 million mobile phone users.

SKE&C has business ventures in housing, forestry, industrial plants and telecommunications.

Arroyo also met the executives of the Korea East West Power Corporation (EWP), led by president Gil Gu Lee and Alterneregy Philippines Holdings Corporation, led by its CEO, Vince Perez, which committed to invest $50 million in the wind power projects.

The $50 million pledge is in addition to the $150 million loan from the Export Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) that would also go to the wind power projects.

Arroyo likewise met executives of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), which has committed a grant worth $12.97 million for the establishment of four modern rice processing facilities in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan; Pototan, Iloilo; Pilar, Bohol, and Matanay, Davao del Sur.

Arroyo also met the executives of Eco Solution Co. Ltd., which committed to invest $175 million on a jatropha plantation project in South Cotabato over the next three years, and EnviroPlasma Ltd. which will invest $300 million on a sugar bioethanol plant in Clark in Pampanga which is expected to produced at least 500,000 liters of bioethanol daily.

The investments have an annual potential of 8,000 jobs for Filipinos for the next three years.

As this developed, President Arroyo and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung welcomed the increase in trade investments between the Philippines and Vietnam, now at about $2.2 billion as of early 2009. Fajardo said the two leaders vowed to continue expanding bilateral trade.