deasine
May 20, 2008, 6:59 AM
B.C. talks trade with South Korea
Local businesses are poised to deliver green energy to the Asian country
Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, May 19, 2008
SEOUL — A change is emerging in South Korea — home of Asia’s third-largest economy — the symbolic evidence of which will soon be visible in the pockets and on the belt clips of this country’s businessmen.
In a move signifying its promise of making the economy a priority, South Korea’s freshly minted government is partially dropping the protectionist barrier that has kept the Canadian-produced BlackBerry from being available to anyone in South Korea.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/d791960c-73fb-4890-999a-2abd80596eff/campbell.jpg?size=l Premier Gordon Campbell (centre) opens the British Columbia Trade and Investment Office with Hee-Beom Lee, chairman of The Korea International Trade Association, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday.
Photograph by : Sungwook Park/ImageClick
The decision comes under the watch of Lee Myung-Bak, South Korea’s new conservative president, who took office in February with promises his pro-business policies could eventually pump the country’s yearly growth rate to seven per cent, up from last year’s 4.9 per cent.
To do so, he has reportedly promised tax cuts, a U.S. free trade deal, increased privatization and deregulation in areas such as corporate investment.
Skyrocketing oil prices and a handful of other issues are posing early challenges to the new president’s ambitious hopes, however, especially given that his country is the world’s fifth-largest importer of oil.
Enter British Columbia, and its trade mission of green businesses poised to offer environmental sustainability and energy efficiency to a country that, by one estimate, spends $100 billion US each year importing energy.
“We have to recognize we must reduce the impact that we have on the environment,” Premier Gordon Campbell told a group of B.C. and Korean businessmen on the first day of his trade mission.
“As we look to reducing that impact, I think we should recognize the power of that in securing stronger economies, more productive economies and healthier economies as well,” he said, going on to promote B.C. solutions.
By most accounts, it seems the timing is right.
"We have a new administration led by president Lee [Myung-Bak], his main focus is to utilize new energy sources — renewable energies," said Kyung Suk Kim, the director of B.C.'s new trade office that Campbell opened in Seoul on Monday.
"We import $100 billion US on energy every year, mostly from Middle East countries," said Hee-Beom Lee, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association.
"Now we want to import renewable energy from Canada."
On Monday, members of the delegation said it was still too early to say what opportunities will emerge in the green sector, although many felt South Korea is serious about reducing both emissions and dependence on foreign oil.
"They really put a push on it," said Pascal Spothelfer, president of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association, and member of the clean energy delegation.
Spothelfer said the Korean government is already spending $500 million each year to attract enough renewable energy technologies so that by 2012, the country can bring renewable energy to five per cent of domestic usage from the current 2.9 per cent.
"It sounds modest, but it's almost a doubling," said Spothelfer, adding the country is focusing on wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cells and coal gasification.
"These guys, when they put their mind to it, they just go. There's a certain boldness that probably would be good for us to focus on."
In his speech, however, Campbell made it clear that sustainability means more than power.
"As we think of designing a lighter carbon footprint, as we think of designing more sustainable cities and more sustainable homes it is important for us to recognize we have to go in a new direction," he said.
"It is our architects and our engineers, our designers and our builders, our developers and our product manufacturers who help us accomplish our goals and objectives."
Besides opening the downtown Seoul trade office, aimed at helping B.C. business enter the Korean market, Campbell also made B.C. a sister province with Gyeonggi, a manufacturing and research hub that is home to major corporations like Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia.
The agreement is meant to commit both provinces to pursuing economic and cultural partnerships with each other.
While in Seoul Monday, Campbell also officially opened a recruitment office for the Vancouver Film School, located adjacent to the new investment office.
The Korea International Trade Association’s Hee-Beom Lee said he believes these moves will all pay dividends, especially because he is hopeful that Korea will sign a free trade agreement with Canada by the end of the year.
"Korea is already the fourth largest trading partner of British Columbia and our trade volume is increasing," he said.
"With a free trade agreement we can increase our bilateral trade and investment," he added, calling the B.C.-Korea relationship "win-win."
jfowlie@png.canwest.com
Source: CanWest/Vancouver Sun
Local businesses are poised to deliver green energy to the Asian country
Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, May 19, 2008
SEOUL — A change is emerging in South Korea — home of Asia’s third-largest economy — the symbolic evidence of which will soon be visible in the pockets and on the belt clips of this country’s businessmen.
In a move signifying its promise of making the economy a priority, South Korea’s freshly minted government is partially dropping the protectionist barrier that has kept the Canadian-produced BlackBerry from being available to anyone in South Korea.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/d791960c-73fb-4890-999a-2abd80596eff/campbell.jpg?size=l Premier Gordon Campbell (centre) opens the British Columbia Trade and Investment Office with Hee-Beom Lee, chairman of The Korea International Trade Association, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday.
Photograph by : Sungwook Park/ImageClick
The decision comes under the watch of Lee Myung-Bak, South Korea’s new conservative president, who took office in February with promises his pro-business policies could eventually pump the country’s yearly growth rate to seven per cent, up from last year’s 4.9 per cent.
To do so, he has reportedly promised tax cuts, a U.S. free trade deal, increased privatization and deregulation in areas such as corporate investment.
Skyrocketing oil prices and a handful of other issues are posing early challenges to the new president’s ambitious hopes, however, especially given that his country is the world’s fifth-largest importer of oil.
Enter British Columbia, and its trade mission of green businesses poised to offer environmental sustainability and energy efficiency to a country that, by one estimate, spends $100 billion US each year importing energy.
“We have to recognize we must reduce the impact that we have on the environment,” Premier Gordon Campbell told a group of B.C. and Korean businessmen on the first day of his trade mission.
“As we look to reducing that impact, I think we should recognize the power of that in securing stronger economies, more productive economies and healthier economies as well,” he said, going on to promote B.C. solutions.
By most accounts, it seems the timing is right.
"We have a new administration led by president Lee [Myung-Bak], his main focus is to utilize new energy sources — renewable energies," said Kyung Suk Kim, the director of B.C.'s new trade office that Campbell opened in Seoul on Monday.
"We import $100 billion US on energy every year, mostly from Middle East countries," said Hee-Beom Lee, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association.
"Now we want to import renewable energy from Canada."
On Monday, members of the delegation said it was still too early to say what opportunities will emerge in the green sector, although many felt South Korea is serious about reducing both emissions and dependence on foreign oil.
"They really put a push on it," said Pascal Spothelfer, president of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association, and member of the clean energy delegation.
Spothelfer said the Korean government is already spending $500 million each year to attract enough renewable energy technologies so that by 2012, the country can bring renewable energy to five per cent of domestic usage from the current 2.9 per cent.
"It sounds modest, but it's almost a doubling," said Spothelfer, adding the country is focusing on wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cells and coal gasification.
"These guys, when they put their mind to it, they just go. There's a certain boldness that probably would be good for us to focus on."
In his speech, however, Campbell made it clear that sustainability means more than power.
"As we think of designing a lighter carbon footprint, as we think of designing more sustainable cities and more sustainable homes it is important for us to recognize we have to go in a new direction," he said.
"It is our architects and our engineers, our designers and our builders, our developers and our product manufacturers who help us accomplish our goals and objectives."
Besides opening the downtown Seoul trade office, aimed at helping B.C. business enter the Korean market, Campbell also made B.C. a sister province with Gyeonggi, a manufacturing and research hub that is home to major corporations like Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia.
The agreement is meant to commit both provinces to pursuing economic and cultural partnerships with each other.
While in Seoul Monday, Campbell also officially opened a recruitment office for the Vancouver Film School, located adjacent to the new investment office.
The Korea International Trade Association’s Hee-Beom Lee said he believes these moves will all pay dividends, especially because he is hopeful that Korea will sign a free trade agreement with Canada by the end of the year.
"Korea is already the fourth largest trading partner of British Columbia and our trade volume is increasing," he said.
"With a free trade agreement we can increase our bilateral trade and investment," he added, calling the B.C.-Korea relationship "win-win."
jfowlie@png.canwest.com
Source: CanWest/Vancouver Sun