Ministry of SMEs and Startups

 
Minister Park Young-sun of the Korean Ministry of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and Startups held a meeting with executives of 20 European companies, including Philips, L’Ore’al, Dassault Systemes, and Mercedes-Benz Korea, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea, on July 1 (Wednesday). The ministry announced that they discussed measures for cooperation between Korean startups and venture firms and European companies.
 
The meeting was prepared by Lukat, who took office as the chairperson of the European Chamber of Commerce on July 1, with the ministry as a way to show his will to continue playing the role of a middleman between Korean startups and European companies for their cooperation.
Meanwhile, Park explained mainly the ministry’s policies on the Korean New Deal, in which European companies are showing high interest, and introduced the achievements made by “innovative Korean venture firms and startups,” which are the new protagonists driving the Korean economy. During the meeting, Park asked for the European companies’ active cooperation with these Korean enterprises. Detailed measures for cooperation were discussed based on the proposals made by the European companies.
 
First, “Philips” (Netherlands) and “L’Ore’al“ (France) agreed to foster Korean startups in the fields of ”digital healthcare“ and ”eco-friendly cosmetics packaging materials,“ respectively, and to support their global advancement by participating in a cooperation project of the ministry following the footsteps of ”Mercedes-Benz“ (Germany), which jointly held the ”Connected Car Startup Hackathon“ in December last year with the ministry.
 
* Lunit, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that the ministry is supporting, participated in “Healthworks,” Philips’s global startup platform, in 2018, and got support for its clinical testing at hospitals overseas and its advancement into the global market. The two sides are currently deliberating the application of Lunit’s AI into Philips’ medical machines.
 
“Cochlear,” a Korean startup selected for the “Connected Car Startup Hackathon” held last year, is currently working on a project together with the headquarters of Germany’s Mercedes-Benz. In this regard, expectations are high that the current hackathon would also not end as just a one-time event, but would serve to catalyze the Korean startups’ advancement into the European market.
 
Mercedes-Benz thanked the ministry for helping discover an excellent partner for cooperation and stated it would hold the “Startup Autobahn Korea”* event during the second half of the year as planned to further reinforce its cooperation mainly in the field of autonomous driving infotainment and to support the advancement of Korean startups into the global market.
 
 * Global startup platform of Daimler Group to discover and foster startups equipped with the capacity to advance into the global market in the field of future mobility (held in the United States, China, Singapore, and India since 2016).
 
Finally, Dassault Systemes (France) proposed using its proprietary technology in the field of “3D design solution” “to build a virtual makerspace” and “to support the software education of Korean meister high schools.”
 
“We are highly interested in collaborating with Korean startups. We plan to review measures for cooperation by acquiring many good ideas during today’s meeting,” said the European companies that participated in the meeting.
 
“Because innovation in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution occurs through connections, ‘strong power to connect small things’ is important...We will actively support so that synergies are created for innovation that would greatly transform the Korean economy into the digital one through cooperation between Korean and European companies,“ Park emphasized.
 

 

 

 
□ Overview
 
ㅇ(Time, date, and venue) From 8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. on July 1, 2020 (Wednesday) at “Namsan 1” on the second floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul
 
ㅇ(Participants) About 40 people, including the Korean minister of SMEs and Startups, the chairperson of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea, CEOs and executives of 20 European companies

* CEOs of participating companies (13 in bold); Apple and ETS are U.S. companies, but they participated as member companies of the European Chamber of Commerce.
 
□ Discussion Details
 
ㅇ(Korean New Deal)The Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ Digital New Deal and Green New Deal policies
 
ㅇ(Reinforcing global cooperation) Building innovative platforms and measures for cooperationwith European companies for large Korean enterprises (including the global) and startups to solve problems together.
 
□Detailed Schedule