According to Yonhap News,
(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Ten embassies in Korea are gathered together to seek cooperation in the matters of the reorganization of global supply chains and carbon neutrality.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held "Roundtable with Foreign Embassies in Korea" at Shilla Hotel, Seoul on June 2.
The event was organized to share policies on industrial technology with major countries and discuss cooperation strategies for such technologies as digital transformation and carbon neutrality in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era.
The roundtable war participated by MOTIE Director General Jang Young-jin and participants from ten foreign embassies in Korea including Philippe Lefort (ambassador of France to Korea), Joanne Doornewaard (Ambassador of the Netherlands to Korea), Jakob Hallgren (Ambassador of Sweden to Korea), and Tudor Hera (Minister-Counsellor, Head of the Trade and Investment Team, Canadian Embassy to South Korea).
The government introduced Korea's industry innovation policies and global R&D strategies in the COVID-19 era.
In particular, an example of cooperation with Israel was introduced, in which joint R&D is supported by creating joint R&D fund based on the Korea-Israel Technological Cooperation Treaty signed in 1999.
The Korean government suggested top-down style cooperation based on stable supply of budget after identifying strategic industries of each country.
To this end, the government announced it would significantly increase foreign participation of industrial R&D from previous 2% to 10% this year.
It added that global R&D support center, built in April next year, has facilitated communication with foreign researchers.
Additionally, embassies made presentations on: semiconductor and Net-Zero policy trends in EU; France's policy trend towards de-carbonation of industries; and innovation policy trends concerning response to the COVID-19 era in American countries. The participants also shared their views on topics of interest to each country and cooperative measures.
MOTIE plans to host roundtable with foreign embassies in Korea on a regular basis to keep communicating with global innovative countries.
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Source: Yonhap News (June 1, 2021)
** This article was translated from Korean.