On May 25, vice
minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Joo Young-chang, discussed measures
to expand bilateral cooperation in strategic technologies with Parliamentary
State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research (BMBF) Jens
Brandenburg, in Berlin, Germany.
This year marks the 140th anniversary of
diplomatic relations between Korea and Germany, and since the signing of the
Korea-Germany Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement in 1986, MSIT and
BMBF have continued to cooperate through the Joint Committee on Science,
Industry and Technology. Recently, on May 21, President Yoon Seok-yul and
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a summit and agreed to deepen bilateral
solidarity and cooperation in responding to international issues.
The meeting with the German Deputy Minister
for Political Affairs of the BMBF was a quick follow-up to the meeting between
the Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and
was organized to further expand the horizons of science and technology
cooperation and bring together the strength of Korea and Germany in the era of
technological hegemony competition faced by both countries.
At the meeting, vice minister Joo explained
Korea's "12 Strategic National Technology Development Strategies,"
while state secretary Jens introduced the details of Germany's "Future
Strategy for Research and Innovation," released in February this year.
The two sides confirmed the similarity of the
two countries' policy directions to cope with the era of technological
hegemony, and reached a consensus on the need to cooperate in future research
on "strategic technology development policies" between Korea and
Germany. Accordingly, it was decided to strengthen the strategic partnership on
strategic technologies, starting with joint research between the two countries'
science and technology policy think tanks.
Based on today's meeting, the two countries
will continue practical discussions and materialize the partnership through the
Joint Korea-Germany Committee on Science, Technology and Industry to be held in
the second half of this year.
On the same morning, vice minsiter Joo also
attended the Korea-Germany Forum on Technology Sovereignty to reinforce the two
countries' commitment to cooperation. The event, co-hosted by the Korea Science
and Technology Assessment Institute and the Fraunhofer-ISI Institute in
Germany, was organized for in-depth discussions between experts from both
countries on strategies for bilateral S&T cooperation to secure
technological sovereignty. In his keynote speech, vice minister Joo emphasized
the importance of bilateral cooperation to establish technological sovereignty,
and called for the forum to continue as an initiative to this end.
MSIT announced, "vice minister Joo's visit
to Germany aims at searching for an optimal partner for establishing
technological sovereignty. MSIT will continue to develop available cooperation
measures based on government cooperation channels such as the 7th Korea-Germany
Joint Committee on Science, Technology and Industry scheduled for the second
half of this year."
For further information, please contact the Public
Relations Division (Phone: +82-44-202-4033, E-mail: yunay@korea.kr)
of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Please refer to the attached PDF.