Editing Economy of South Korea (section)

===Construction===
[[File:Seosan Break Water Construction (Hyundai Construction).jpg|thumb|right|Breakwater construction in Seosan coast (1984)]]
Construction has been an important South Korean export industry since the early 1960s, and remains a critical source of foreign currency and ''invisible'' export earnings. By 1981, overseas construction projects, most of them in the Middle East, accounted for 60 percent of the work undertaken by South Korean construction companies. Contracts that year were valued at US$13.7 billion. In 1988, however, overseas construction contracts totaled only US$2.6 billion (orders from the Middle East were US$1.2 billion), a 1 percent increase over the previous year, while new orders for domestic construction projects totaled US$13.8 billion, an 8.8 percent increase over 1987. South Korean construction companies therefore concentrated on the rapidly growing domestic market in the late 1980s. By 1989, there were signs of a revival of the overseas construction market: the Dong Ah Construction Company signed a US$5.3 billion contract with [[Libya]] to build the second phase (and other subsequent phases) of Libya's [[Great Man-Made River|Great Man-Made River Project]], with a projected cost of US$27 billion when all 5 phases were completed. South Korean construction companies signed over US$7 billion of overseas contracts in 1989.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12314.html|title=South Korea: Construction|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=14 August 2010|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305033134/http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12314.html|url-status=live}}</ref> South Korea's largest construction companies include [[Samsung C&T Corporation]], which built some of the highest buildings and most noteworthy skyscrapers such as three consecutively the world's tallest buildings: the [[Petronas Towers]], [[Taipei 101]], and the [[Burj Khalifa]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4thCrpuz6v0C&q=samsung+construction+Taipei+101&pg=PA51|title=Civil Engineer's Handbook of Professional Practice|isbn=9780470901649|last1=Hansen|first1=Karen|last2=Zenobia|first2=Kent|date=31 March 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=4 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304090056/https://books.google.com/books?id=4thCrpuz6v0C&q=samsung+construction+Taipei+101&pg=PA51|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.secc.co.kr/eng/html/biz/building.asp|title=Building -- Samsung C&T|access-date=11 June 2016|archive-date=21 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921182441/http://www.secc.co.kr/eng/html/biz/building.asp|url-status=live}}</ref>