Korean entrepreneur wins business rights for cable car project in Sri Lanka

A Korean entrepreneur has won the business rights to a cable car project Kandy. The entrepreneur is 71-year-old Sky Asia Chairman Yoo Sun-ha.

 

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction will begin next year and the cable car is expected to open by the end of 2022. It will connect 2.2 kilometers from downtown Kandy and Hanthana Mountain. A total of $35 million will be invested in the project.

 

“I met Sri Lanka’s culture and tourism ministers by chance in 2012 and I did not speak fluent English,“ Yoo said during the interview with The Korea Herald on Friday. “They kept saying something about Kandy Municipal. I thought they were talking about candy, not Kandy.”

 

The Sri Lankan officials offered Yoo multiple places to invest in Sri Lanka, including Kandy. At the time, he was in charge of setting up Korea’s first maritime cable car in the southern port city of Yeosu.

 

“The most important thing in the cable car business is the number of tourists,” Yoo said. “How many tourists annually visit where I want to build a cable car and how do the number of visitors vary each month? It has to be over at least 2.5 million (a year).”

 

Since his first cable car project in Yeosu, Yoo has worked with French lift manufacturer Poma. He also successfully completed Myanmar’s first cable car in Mon State in 2017.

 

Although he declined to be called as the living legend of Korean cable car, Yoo said, “I can say it with confidence that I am a Korean pioneer in winning business rights for cable cars in foreign countries.”

 

Kandy city was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1988. It sees an average of 5 million visitors per year.

 

Source : Korea Herald