SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and Daejeon Techno Park, recognized as South Korea’s Silicon Valley, recently signed an agreement to pursue a cooperation program in technology development, training, research and information sharing, as well as business matching.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Roberto V. Garcia signed the memorandum of understanding with Dr. Jun-byeong Park, Daejeon Techno Park President and CEO, and the Daejeon City vice mayor for administrative affairs and director general of science, culture and tourism.
The signing was held on July 25 in Daejeon, South Korea’s fifth-largest metropolis and the provincial capital of Chungnam.
Garcia said the agreement “basically aims to build up strategic and collaborative partnerships between the SBMA and the Daejeon Metropolitan City [DMC]” and is designed to bring about collaborative efforts to promote mutual growth and benefit for their respective stakeholders.
The agreement covers the areas of industrial technology, business development and exchange, global network construction, knowledge resource sharing and support marketing.
Garcia said the memorandum of understanding MOU will also allow the two parties to promote joint business matching, research projects and cooperative networking among business and research institutes.
The SBMA and DMC also agreed to undertake exchange programs in technology, staff training and work-force exchange.
“This is a very significant development for the Subic Bay Freeport, especially considering that Daejeon is home to various private-and public-research institutes, centers and science parks,” said Garcia, who is pushing for the establishment of Subic as a business-process outsourcing hub.
Daejeon is known as the science-and-technology capital of Korea, and is home to a technology cluster known as Daedeok Innopolis, which consists of national universities and government research institutes, government-invested corporate research institutes, corporate research centers and venture companies.
Garcia said the more notable establishments in Daedeok include the Electronic Telecommunications Research Institute, Korean Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Korea Institute of Energy Research, National Nanofab Center, and research and development centers for high-technology firms like Samsung and LG.
Garcia said that after the MOU signing with Daejeon, the SBMA would seek to “develop and replicate that kind of techno park here in the freeport.”
After signing the agreement, Garcia and SBMA Director Benjamin Antonio met with Daejeon Mayor Yeom Hong-chul and visited Chungnam University, one of the largest government universities among the 18 universities in Daejeon.
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Source: Harry Empeño, Business Mirror (15 August 2012)
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