Daewoo Engineering accelerates Southeast Asia push with Vietnam, Indonesia as twin pillars

Daewoo Engineering & Construction is stepping up its push into Southeast Asia, one of three priority markets — alongside the United States and Africa — in its global growth strategy. With Vietnam and Indonesia as its core bases, the company is expanding beyond urban development into data centers, nuclear power plants and energy infrastructure as it works to establish itself as a global developer.

Vietnam has been the most successful market in Daewoo Engineering & Construction's overseas history, industry sources say. The company's flagship project there, Starlake City in Hanoi, is widely regarded as the defining example of a Korean-style new town developed abroad by a domestic construction company.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction handled every stage of the Starlake City project in-house — from planning and land compensation to permitting, financing, construction, pre-sales and ongoing management — demonstrating its full-cycle developer capabilities. The project also served as a gateway for major South Korean companies including Samsung Electronics, CJ Group, E-mart and Shilla Hotel to enter the Vietnamese market, and has become a key platform for South Korea-Vietnam economic cooperation through local job creation and economic activity.

That success is now feeding into new urban development ventures. In Hung Yen Province, the company is pursuing the Kien Giang new-town development project — a plan to build residential facilities, commercial spaces, apartments and social housing across a roughly 96-hectare site in the Thai Binh area, with the entire zone slated for completion as a new city by 2035.

Also in Dong Nai Province, the Nhon Trach new-town development project will create apartments, villas and mixed-use commercial facilities across a roughly 55-hectare site. Land compensation and infrastructure work are already complete, and the project has reached the stage where land sales and self-developed projects can proceed. Villa pre-sales are scheduled for this year, raising expectations of tangible results.

Beyond urban development, Daewoo Engineering & Construction is actively pursuing entry into national infrastructure projects. In April, it signed an MOU with SaigonTel, a Vietnamese IT and infrastructure development company, to jointly develop data centers, establishing a foothold in that market. The agreement is seen as an important starting point for expanding into digital infrastructure, coming as the Vietnamese government pushes to improve data center regulations and increase related investment.

The company also plans to participate in major national network projects, including the Ninh Thuan No. 2 nuclear power plant and Vietnam's north-south high-speed railway. The Ninh Thuan No. 2 plant in particular is considered the next overseas export candidate for South Korean nuclear technology after the Czech Dukovany project. Daewoo Engineering & Construction is preparing to join as part of "Team Korea" alongside Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, drawing on its accumulated nuclear construction experience. The company has been steadily broadening its nuclear energy partnerships at home and abroad to strengthen its position in the global nuclear market.

Indonesia is another country Daewoo Engineering & Construction is cultivating as a key strategic market. Since entering Indonesia in 1986, the company has spent roughly four decades building a track record there — completing seven projects worth a combined $540 million across construction, plant and industrial facilities, including the Kraft Paper Plant, District 8 and the Tangguh LNG Expansion Phase 2.

Building on that experience, the company is now taking on new challenges in urban development. At a South Korea-Indonesia economic cooperation event held in April during Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's visit to South Korea, Daewoo Engineering & Construction signed an MOU with Sinar Mas Land and the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. (KIND) to pursue the BSD new-town development project. The project calls for building roughly 1,500 units of detached homes and mixed-use residential buildings on an approximately 46-hectare site within the BSD new town southwest of Jakarta, with plans to develop a Korean-style residential community that becomes a landmark for the area.

More recently, the company proposed a new development model combining future energy and digital infrastructure. During a visit to Indonesia on July 9, Daewoo Engineering & Construction Chairman Jeong Won-ju met with Sugeng Suparwoto, chair of the House of Representatives' energy committee, and Todotua Pasaribu, vice minister of investment and downstream industries, and proposed an "all-in-one integrated development model" that bundles an LNG plant, power generation infrastructure, a small modular reactor and a GW-scale AI data center into a single project.

The Indonesian government expressed strong interest in the model, which draws on Daewoo Engineering & Construction's accumulated experience in LNG plant and energy infrastructure construction, and indicated it would actively support the project's advancement. The two sides have reached a broad consensus on moving forward, with site due diligence, detailed project planning and further government consultations to follow.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction is leveraging its urban development experience in Vietnam to expand its Korean-style mixed-use city model into Indonesia, while also broadening its portfolio into future growth sectors such as data centers, nuclear power, railways and power infrastructure. The integrated development model combining urban development, energy and digital infrastructure is seen as the company's core strategy for moving beyond a simple contractor role into a global developer that spans planning, investment, development and operations.

The company plans to use Vietnam and Indonesia as strategic anchors to secure future growth engines and build new success stories in global markets. Southeast Asia's strong economic growth, rapid urbanization and surging demand for digital transformation are all cited as factors underpinning the region's growth potential.

"Vietnam and Indonesia are not simply overseas markets — they are the core strategic bases that will drive Daewoo Engineering & Construction's future growth," a company official said. "We will continue to identify tailored projects aligned with each country's growth strategy and work closely with local governments and partners to create new growth opportunities in the Southeast Asian market as we make our leap to become a global developer."

Meanwhile, Daewoo Engineering & Construction recently finalized its investment in the Palisades Park residential development project in New Jersey, further accelerating progress on its key strategic initiatives.