[Courtesy of Lotte Mart]
BEIJING -- South Korea's Lotte Group has been allowed by Chinese local authorities to resume construction at a major property project in China's northeastern city of Shenyang, nearly 18 months after it was halted in a diplomatic row over the deployment of a U.S. missile shield.
The green light came from the Shenyang city government which had ordered the suspension of construction at the Lotte complex for latent fire hazards, Chinese sources said. "We know that there is a process of negotiations with neighboring residents regarding the issue of their prospect right," one source said. "Once the measure of compensation is established, construction will start again."
Lotte has invested an enormous amount of money in China, including a business complex in Shenyang. But construction of the complex was suspended in November 2016 when the retail group became the prime target of China's retaliatory onslaught for allowing US troops to set up the missile shield in its golf course.
Under its Shenyang project which costs some three trillion won (2.7 billion US dollars) and covers an area of 1.45 million square meters, Lotte is set to build apartments and a theme park in addition to a department store and a movie theater which have been already open.
The resumption of construction at Lotte's project in Shenyang sparked speculation that China is ready to withdraw all retaliatory steps against South Korea in business and other fields. The two countries agreed to normalize relations under an agreement in October last year, but Chinese steps have been gradual.
"We are exchanging opinions with China on the difficulties of Korean companies," South Korean ambassador to China Noh Young-min said. "We will step up efforts to restore and visualize economic exchanges and cooperation by category."
Last month the operator of Lotte's hypermarket chain agreed to sell one of its six regional operations in China to Wumei Holdings, a Beijing-based retail group, paving the way for the withdrawal of its troubled business hit by a prolonged consumer boycott. Wumei would acquire 87.38 percent of Lotte's Chinese unit in charge of 21 stores in and around Beijing for 248.5 billion won.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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