Overseas orders clenched by South Korean builders have grown significantly from a year earlier in the first nine months of the year partly on a large increase in orders from Asian and Middle Eastern countries, the government said Monday.

In the January-September period, overseas deals signed by South Korean construction firms amounted to $44.8 billion, up 13 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

“The amount had dropped 5 percent on-year in the first half of the year but has turned to a growth of 13 percent on the back of large-scale orders grabbed in the third quarter, such as the deal for Saudi Arabia’s thermal power plant (worth $3.26 billion) and Morocco’s power plant (worth $1.77 billion),” the ministry said in a press release.

The ministry said the growth in the first three quarters was led by a 74 percent on-year spike in orders from Asian countries, whose overall orders for South Korean builders totaled $19.19 billion, accounting for 43 percent of all orders won by South Korean firms in the first nine months of the year. (Yonhap News)