Meeting of the Minds

On Jan. 18, 2010, at the Millennium Seoul Hilton, approximately 100 people met at an event called “New Opportunities in Science and Technology Collaboration Between India and Republic of Korea.” The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Daedeok Innopolis, the Embassy of India and the Indo-Korean Business and Policy Forum. Many distinguished guests were invited to attend and to participate. There were opening remarks by a number of dignitaries and six different presentations from experts in the field of India- Korea relations.

Dr. Emanuel Pastreich, master of ceremonies for the event, started everything off by introducing His Excellency Skand Tayal, ambassador of India, who made welcome remarks. He welcomed everyone to the event and recognized the assembled dignitaries including as Mr. Rim Chae-min, vice minister of industry and technology, and Kang Gye-doo, president of Daedeok Innopolis. He then spoke briefly about the then-upcoming visit of President Lee Myung-bak to India’s Republic Day celebration and marked it as a “momentous occasion in India-Korea relations.” He went on to say that the Indian government is very impressed with the Korean government’s focus on green technology, renewable energy, water treatment, LED applications, green transportation systems and solar energy. He said that India also places great importance on science and technology research, including nanotechnology. He ended by saying, “I hope that this session proves to be both stimulating and thought provoking, and that from your discussions, ideas would emerge which our scientists and institutions would follow for tangible and productive outcomes.” He was followed by Vice-Minister Rim, who expressed similar sentiments and hoped for a good outcome of cooperation between the two countries.

Technical Presentations

After the introductory speeches, the forum launched straight into the keynote address by Kang Gye-doo. He presented a talk about “Korea-India Collaboration on Science and Technology.” And, as the president of Daedeok Innopolis, his focus was on that research park. He believes that changes to the world’s economy and global R&D trends can move Asia forward rapidly, and he believes that Korea and India can be at the center of such movement. Korea has 60 years of rapid economic growth, with a GDP of $1.4 billion in 1948 and of $950 billion in 2008. It has light industry, construction, chemical industry, electronics, information technology and other industries. India, on the other hand, has the highest growth potential and a bipolar structure to its economy. It has both a traditional light industry economy and new information-based economy. The industrial structures of both countries are complimentary, which will promote globalization and boost competitiveness. Kang also said that in modernizing conventional industries, a win-win business structure can be formed. Kang also pointed out that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA ) between the two countries has significantly changed the environment.

From all of this backdrop, Kang outlined a future path for cooperation between Korea and India. He said that the two countries could work together building a Korea-India economic, scientific and technological network. With more exchanges in human resources and sophisticated expertise, the next step could be support for joint research and development for industrial technologies development. After that, the two countries can set up core trading in science, technology and industry and the sharing of economic results.

This is where Daedeok Innopolis can come in, according to Kang. Daedeok Innopolis’s strengths would be ideal for linking with Gujarat City in India and sharing know-how on the construction of a Korean-model science and technology park. After a sister institution to Daedeok Innopolis is created, the two parks can implement joint research and development projects on green technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, aerospace engineering and all of the other things that Daedeok Innopolis does today. There are other possibilities for cooperation between the two countries that Daedeok Innopolis can help out with, like project startups and joint venture companies. Korean and Indian firms can get involved, and, well, the possibilities would be endless.

History Lesson

Next up was Dr. Sun Joong-hae from the Korea Development Institute with a presentation titled “Korea’s Transition to a Knowledge Economy.” Dr. Sun started off with a rather detailed summary of the history of Korea’s economic development, which should be familiar to most people these days. His presentation got more interesting when he entered into the “Lessons” portion. He said that market competition provides the motivation for innovation in a growing economy. Pressure for technological competitiveness between several actors can be effective to promote any economy. Also, a small economy will be very effective if it looks outward in its development strategies. He also noted that human resources are the key to learning a new global system. Finally he outlined that the government’s role at later stages of the game needs to be changed. In a young economy, government direction can be very helpful, but in a more mature economy, intervention would do more harm than intended. If a government body must be involved, he suggested that it should be selective and focused, and that strategic planning is very important for success. And, finally, when developing a technological economy, commercialization should be part of the plan from the beginning. He also pointed out that large research centers are good for industrialization, but that universities must be more highly valued if creativity and curiosity are to be fostered.

The final part of his presentation dealt with Korea’s challenges in the 21st century. He said that this was the end of the road for a high-input, high growth regime. There are changes in the return on investment in college education. There are large changes in management in large Korean companies. There are gaps in the requirements of human resources and the education provided to people. An innovation is also in transition, according to Sun. Also, excessive government intervention was harmful to the venture capital market. All of these challenges that Korea faces are a different ball game from the last 40 years. But, in closing the presentation, he expressed confidence that Korea can meet these challenges.

Clean Energy

The day was full of interesting presentations. Another was given by Professor Ramchandra Pode from Kyeonggi University on the subject of “Clean Energy India-Korea Cooperation.” He began by giving a short presentation on the world’s energy reserves, and then zeroed in on India and Korea. He showed that India’s primary source of energy is coal, which makes up 53.4 percent of the mix. Following coal is oil at 31.6 percent of the total energy India uses. Korea was opposite, with 43.4 percent of its total energy being oil and 25.3 percent being coal. One big difference that he pointed out was that India only got 0.81 percent of its energy from nuclear power, while Korea got 14.9 percent of its total energy supply from nuclear power. He said, “We are in a new era where growing energy needs and environmental and health issues are the key challenges. The two are closely interconnected.”

Then he changed the focus to the future. He said that the future energy mix for countries will mostly consist of nuclear fuel, natural gas and renewable sources. He began speaking about solar energy, pointing out that the total amount of solar energy that falls to earth is 5.5x1017 kWh/ year, and that the total amount of energy that the entire population of the earth uses is only 4x1014 kWh/ year. Even the potential amount of wind energy surpasses what we use, as it is calculated to be 6x1014 kWh/year. He also pointed out that the solar energy available in India is “relatively greater than in many other heavily populated regions of the world.” He said that only 1 percent of India’s land area can supply all of its electricity requirements up to the year 2030. This is why India is so interested in renewable energy sources.

He went on to speak about Korea’s budding solar panel industry, which began in 2001. Korea’s existing flat panel display industries give an advantage in developing solar cell technology, because many of the same techniques and materials are used. He envisioned a feedback loop where heavy investment in Korea’s solar panel display industry would provide nearly seven-times growth in production by 2012, which would provide more than $8 billion in revenue by 2013 and generate 2.67 GW of energy. India’s new focus on solar power, its large potential market size and its lack of solar power technology create a great market for Korea’s nascent solar panel industry. Korea has the technology, but lacks a large market and raw materials. Fortunately, India can supply both of these. Professor Pode strongly recommended Korea-India cooperation in solar panel technology within the next three years.

Policy

Another interesting presentation at the event was given by Dr. Deok Soon Yim, a research fellow at the Gyeonggi Science and Technology Center. He spoke about the contributions to the development of science in human history that India has made. “India is the home of many scientific fields such as mathematics, medicine and so on,” he said. He also said that both countries could benefit from science and technology cooperation, but complained that nothing has been realized yet, only talked about. In an effort to move the discussion forward, he recommended a specific course of action. “First, the initiatives from both governments need to be strengthened,” he said. He said that governmental cooperation is the only true way to make things work, because private investment will always be too small. Secondly, he recommended institutional cooperation between the research centers of both countries, something beyond the signing of MOU s. “Third, it is recommended that both countries should build the platform for science and technology cooperation,” he went on to say. Fourth, he pointed out that in order to keep the cooperation efforts strong, the two countries need to organize promotional efforts like technology exhibitions, job fairs, and joint conferences. His final recommendation was to prepare for and work through possible misunderstandings and mistakes to focus on the long-term benefits of mutual cooperation between the two countries.

Discussion

While there were several other presentations, all of them had a similar tone and positive outlook. The general consensus of the event was simply that Korea and India are extremely complimentary. The wrap-up session, which allowed for questions and discussion, was presided over by Mr. Chang Kook Hyun, secretariat director general of the International Association of Science Parks. Participating in this session were Dr. Cho Young-sang, principal research scientist at the Solar Cell Center of KIST ; Kim Bong-hoon, Ph.D. and CEO of MA Xtin Business Advisory; Chander Wanchoo, senior manager of global business for SK C&C; and Professor Deb Kumar Mukherjee of Kyunghee University. All of the post-presentation comments were positive. When taking questions from the audience as well, Chang received upbeat, excited responses. Judging from the reactions of everyone at the conference, there is nothing but good things happening for the future of India-Korea cooperation. The only possible drawback is that there were not as many people in attendance as there could have been. India is a large country, and they should be able to flood meetings like this with qualified personnel in every field, more than enough to say whatever needs to be said. However, there are still only a few Indian citizens actually living in Korea – fewer than 10,000 – and the same is true of Korean citizens living in India. If all goes as people at this conference say it will, expect those numbers to skyrocket in the coming years.