Cooperation with Technologically Advanced South Korea Intensifies

23 May. 2014 | CzechInvest, MPO ČR | Seminar on the future of the chemical industry attended by nine-member South Korean delegation and the country’s ambassador.

A seminar focused on trends in the chemical industry and the general policy for supporting research and development was held today at the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague. The main objective of the seminar was to build closer cooperation between the Czech Republic and South Korea in this branch of industry. A delegation of nine South Korean businesspeople and government representatives was accompanied by Hayong Moon, South Korea's ambassador in the Czech Republic. The seminar was also attended by Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek.

"Economic cooperation between the Czech Republic and South Korea is increasingly close," says Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek. "We have designated the country as one of our priority locations for attracting foreign investments, and we are therefore preparing to open a CzechInvest office in Seoul in the near future."

"The South Koreans are behind twenty-one of the investment projects that CzechInvest has helped to bring to the Czech Republic since 1993. Thanks to those projects, nearly nine thousand jobs have been created here," adds Ondřej Votruba, acting CEO of CzechInvest. "And a new wave of South Korean investments that are coming here promise to create even more."

To date, a major part of South Korean investments have involved the automotive industry. "Like the automotive industry, where we have built up a strong and mutually beneficial partnership, the chemical industry is a very important sector for our county," says Hayong Moon, South Korea's ambassador in the Czech Republic, indicating another possible area of Czech-Korean trade relations.

Attended by hundreds of interested parties, the seminar was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, CzechInvest, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Czech Republic, the Korea-Trade Promotion Agency, the Ulsan Technology Park and the city of Ulsan. During the event, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ulsan Technology Park and the Institute of Chemical Processes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was signed. In addition, dozens of meetings of partners from both countries were held. The Korean delegation's programme of activities in the Czech Republic is continuing on Friday with visits to selected destinations in Prague and in the Pardubice region.