South Korean steel major Posco Friday announced the promotion of two top officials handling its East Indian state Orissa's steel plant, reflecting the significance the company attaches to the Indian project, Indo- Asian News Service (IANS) reported.

The fifth largest steel manufacturer in the world announced the appointment of Posco India managing director, Soung-Sik Cho, as standing director in the Posco Board.

This is the first time in the 38-year history of Posco that the head of an overseas subsidiary has been appointed as a board member, a move that reflects the significance of the India project in the ambitious global growth plans of the company, IANS quoted a release issued by the firm as saying.

Cho, who joined POSCO in 1974, has also been promoted as senior executive vice president in the company.

Tae-Hyun Jeong, the deputy managing director of Posco-India, has been promoted to vice president of Posco, it said.

Since the signing of the agreement in June 2005 and the setting up of Posco's Indian subsidiary in August 2005, Posco has made an initial capital investment of 51.3 million U.S. dollars in the project, the release said.

Posco-India's steel plant project is one of the largest foreign direct investments in India. The investment proposed is to the tune of 12 billion dollars, IANS reported.

Source: Xinhua