Land Minister Won Hee-ryong met with incoming Paraguayan President Santiago Pena Palacios and discussed South Korean companies' participation in the South American country's light rail project, Won's office said Tuesday.

Won paid a visit to Pena on Monday, local time, and asked for support for efforts to enact a special bill helping South Korean companies win the $600 million project to build a 45-kilometer light rail line between Asuncion, Paraguay's capital, and Ypacarai.

South Korean companies, including the state-funded Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp., the Korea National Railway, Hyundai Engineering Co. and Kye-ryong Construction Industrial Co., have formed a public-private partnership to win the project.

Since signing a memorandum of understanding with Seoul's transport ministry in September 2021, the Paraguayan government has tabled a special bill on cooperation with South Korea for the project, but the bill is currently pending at the congress.

At Won's request, Pena said he will "actively support" the legislation, saying the project will modernize Paraguay's infrastructure and help South Korean companies break into the Central and South American region, according to the land ministry.

If South Korea wins the bid, it will mark the first export of the country's comprehensive railway system.

Won also delivered President Yoon Suk Yeol's letter to Pena as a special envoy to the inauguration ceremony of the Paraguayan president set to take place Tuesday, local time. The content of the letter was not immediately known. (Yonhap)