Korean investments in the country hit more than billion topped by a proposed major ship-repair facility in Subic, Olongapo City, he said.

De Venecia said President Arroyo hailed Korea’s major investments, including those in the power sector and the Bicol railway, during the recent visit by Speaker of the Korean National Assembly Kim Won-ki.

Kim called on the President at Malacañang, accompanied by the Philippines Speaker De Venecia.

The South Korean government is financing the construction of the first segment of the SouthRail or Bicol railway from Manila to Calamba City, a major project envisioned to go all the way to Sorsogon as the mass transport backbone of the Bicol region.

The Bicol line will eventually link with the NorthRail, a double-track line running initially from Manila to Malolos and eventually to Clark, whose construction is being funded by the Chinese government.

Both rail systems are expected to transform the economies of provinces near Metro Manila by expanding commerce and providing commuters with a fast, efficient, safe, and affordable mass-transport system.

De Venecia said the current expansion in the political and economic relations between the Philippines and South Korea is "the beginning of a golden period in the relations between our two countries."

Earlier, De Venecia honored Kim with the Congressional Medal of Achievement, the highest decoration given by the House of Representatives, in ceremonies attended by senior House leaders and members of Kim’s delegation that included members of the administration and opposition parties in South Korea and his wife, Mrs. Yoon Chung Sim.

The Korean government is building a power plant in Cebu and expanding the capacity of its power plant in Batangas City.

During a visit to Seoul last year, De Venecia proposed an undersea cable to bring excess power from Batangas City to Mindoro, where a major agro-industrial park could be built.

De Venecia said that former President Fidel V. Ramos and Veterans Freedom Party Rep. Ernesto Gidaya were among the 7,000 Filipino soldiers who fought gallantly in the Korean War in the early 1950s in defense of freedom and democracy.

The Korean Speaker said it was then congressman Diosdado Macapagal, as chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, who filed a resolution to dispatch Filipino troops to the Korean Peninsula under the command of the United Nations.

The Korean Speaker asked De Venecia to call the fourth conference of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Seoul this September.

As ICAPP’s founding father, De Venecia is chairman of the Standing Committee of the ICAPP, with almost 100 political parties, ruling and opposition, as members.