When the TV camera crews and ravenous press scrums packed up their bags and moved on, the inevitable void that followed was palpable. Several months on and into the summer, it was starting to feel like an unavoidable scar plastered all over the otherwise pleasant face of Baengnyeong Island.

Tiny and on the frontline of the North-South Korea conflict, the outcrop was thrust to center stage when the South Korean navy corvette, the Cheonan, sunk on March 26.

Technology incubators are a special form of business incubator. They focus on new enterprises whose operations are based on novel technological ideas that are likely to lead to a marketable new product. They provide common services as well as financial, legal and business support to these newly formed enterprises. The incubation process ends after a limited period of time, either with the “graduation” of successful start-ups that move outside the incubator, or with the termination of incubation arrangements for one reason or another.

The demands of the world economy are changing. The 21st Century demands a new brand of cooperation on education. Several countries have put education at the top of their national agendas. An emerging trend is observed in the collaboration between various nations in the field of education to meet global challenges.

Korea has long had an insatiable thirst for English. English as a second language (ESL) education is a billion dollar industry in this country of 48 million. Starting in third grade, all students receive compulsory ESL classes in the public school system; these classes continue through the first or second year of university. Some 40,000 children are sent to study in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and Great Britain, as well as special camps in the Philippines, Malaysia and some other countries. ESL is a US$15 billion a year industry.

Mr. Kang Gye-doo, President and CEO of Daedeok Innopolis—Korea’s foremost research cluster—visited Saudi Arabia to discuss closer collaboration between Korea and Saudi Arabia. Kang took advantage of this visit to deliver an inspiring keynote address at the first annual “International Conference on Entrepreneurship” (25-26 October, 2009) held in Riyahd. Kang stressed the importance of institutional innovation, something that he is famous for. He shared his experiences in the internationalization of Daedeok Innopolis over the last year, stressing the importance of entrepreneurs and the universal validity of the Korean developmental model.