S Korea to Partner in India's Smart City Projects

World Trade Centre Mumbai and All India Association of Industries (AIAI) jointly organised the Korea India Business Partnership Forum 2016 on ‘Bilateral Co-operation for India Smart City Programme’ in Mumbai on May 17, 2016.

The event provided a platform for companies in the infrastructure industry (especially the smart cities sector) of both countries to explore collaboration opportunities.

Mr. Bok Wan Yang, Vice Governor, Gyeonggi Province of South Korea delivered the key note address at the event. Mr. Yang said “Gyeonggi Province is known for its information technology (IT), Biotechnology, semi conductors and other industries. With cutting edge technologies we are planning to create Smart Cities for the future generation by implementing the concept of ‘zero cities’ with zero waste, zero carbon emissions, zero pollution, zero cost for start-ups.”
Mr. Min-cheol Lee, Director General, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Government of The Republic of Korea, said South Korea was highly impressed with the performance of Indian manufacturing and service industry which indicates that "India has a potential to grow at 8-9% and beyond". The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the Republic of Korea and India is important for accelerating economic development in both the countries.

During the event, Mr. Soungeun Kim, Consul General of the Republic of Korea informed that LG Chemicals was planning to invest US$ 100 million in Maharashtra and US$ 200 million in Gujarat.

Mr. Hyochoon Yoon, Managing Director, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) expressed confidence that the partnership of both the countries would expand and diversify further in strategic areas of their mutual complementarities.

Mr. Vijay Kalantri, Vice Chairman, World Trade Centre Mumbai, in his congratulatory remarks, said, “India has overtaken China to become the world's fastest growing economy by clocking 7.5% GDP growth for the March quarter indicating that economy is clearly on "an upward path." Therefore, he emphasised that this is the right time for South Korea to invest in India. Also the government’s focus on improving the ease of doing business has been clearly accelerating investments in infrastructure, both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure.

Mr. Kalantri further pointed out that out of the 100 smart cities that the government has proposed to develop, the US has adopted 3 smart cities. In the same way, South Korea can also adopt some smart cities. It is estimated that around 250 million people from the rural areas will migrate to the cities in the coming 10 years. Smart cities are a big opportunity which should be looked at by South Korea as there will be just one nodal agency for such projects, Mr. Kalantri added. He also urged South Korea to use India as a hub for exports.

Caption: (From L to R) Mr. Vijay Kalantri, Vice Chairman, World Trade Centre Mumbai, Mr. Hyochoon Yoon, Managing Director, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA)