2017 evidenced the early change of leadership in the Republic of Korea. The President elect Moon Jae-in announced the policy of extended cooperation with Russia. Herewith the Korean party adopted the program “New Northern Policy” and announced the incentive of “nine bridges” uniting our countries in such industries as shipbuilding, harbor development, employment and development of the Northern Sea Route, oil and gas, railway development, electrical energy, agriculture, fishing and workplaces creation.
The Russian government supported the idea, and during the Eastern Economic Forum – 2017 the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin in his turn suggested transforming these incentives into real projects.
Following basic agreements between the leaders of the countries the practical part of the projects is carries out by the federal and regional state structures, governmental and private companies and businesses. The implementation is facilitated by the mutual visa-free regime for tourist and business trips, adopted on January 1, 2014.
One of the examples of dynamic cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation is the activity of the Gyeonggi-do administration – one of the most populated province of the Republic with 13 million people. The administrative center of Gyeonggi-do is Suwon City.
Just like Moscow and the Moscow Region Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea is located in the center of province Gyeonggi-do but the city has a special status nonintegrated into the province. The population of Seoul is about 10 million people, about a half of 52 million people living in the Republic of Korea, live and work in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do.
The delegation of Gyeonggi-do regularly visits different regions of Russia developing bilateral relations and cooperation in different areas. Basically one of the main advantages of the province is its geographic location close to Russia and the EAEU and CIS countries. Another important fact is that in Gyeonggi-do there are head-quarters Kyungjun Kim, General Director, PBKO Holdings Corp, The Republic of Korea GYEONGGI-DO– THE DRIVER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA of the largest industrial Korean corporations (Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group etc.), Pangyo Techno Valley and Gwanggyo Techno Valley, branches of the institute KITECH for the support of SME, technoparks and a large number of hi-tech companies.
The administration of the province is interested in investments to the region, and the Euro-Asian vector is in the focus of Gyeonggi-do interests. One of the effective and popular forms of cooperation is the search for new technologies and their joint commercialization with the Korean partners. Gyeonggi-do supports companies which transfer their technologies to the province, set up their offices and production here. The province takes various measures to support such incentives.
There are already some examples of the incipient cooperation between Gyeonggi-do and Russia.
Thus in 2017 the Company Group “Far-East Transport Company” and the government of Gyeonggi-do signed a memorandum of cooperation and agreed to work together to create logistic and trade ties and relations, to attract investment to the transport facilities, to the Nakhodka sea fish port and container terminals, as well as to the development of the chain of cold storages and distribution of fish.
On 7th June 2017 the ceremony of opening the Representative office “Gyeonggi Business Center” at the premises of the municipal government of Gyeonggi-do in Russia and CIS (“Gyeonggi Business Center – Moscow”), aimed to provide complex solutions for business of the most populated province of the Republic of Korea was held.
Joint investment projects will be supported by municipal authorities in accordance with governmental goals and tasks and with regards to the mechanisms and instruments of state support.
On September 22, 2017 in Moscow a four-party memorandum was signed on technical cooperation to design a selfdriving car between Gyeonggi-do, the Innovation center Skolkovo, “LATINTERKOM” and the Korean corporation “Prosence Co., Ltd.” And in 2018 Gyeonggi-do signed a memorandum of cooperation with State Corporation “Rostec” which will become a partner of the most hi-tech region of the Republic of Korea in machine tool technology, engineering, metal industry, electronics and optics. This partnership implies an alliance of the opportunities of Russian development companies and technological capacity of Gyeonggi-do as well as investments.
There are other examples of partnership: the province cooperates with a number of other Russian companies, and Gyeonggi-do already has a platform for further development of Russian technology – for example Gyeonggi-do Science and Business Accelerator (GBSA). Hopefully the relations between Gyeonggi-do and Russia will only strengthen. Particularly that on January 23, 2019 FBA EAC headquarters hosted the meeting of the representatives of the province’s authorities. The Korean delegation was represented by Deputy Director of the Investment Promotion Division of Gyeonggi Provincial Government Choi Won-Kyoo, Project Manager of the Investment Promotion Division of Gyeonggi Provincial Government Cho Eun-Suk and и Manager of the Investment Promotion Division of Gyeonggi Provincial Government Choi Hye-Kyo ng. The representatives of Korean company PBKO Holdings Corp. and Korean-Russian company Secufibre Co., Ltd. also participated at the meeting.
The meeting was initiated by the Korean party in the face of the official visit of the President of Russia V.Putin to the Korean Republic in 2019. The head of the Korean delegation Choi Won-Kyoo spoke about the Republic in general and about the projects carried out in Gyeonggi-do first of all in R&D area. He also expressed interest in cooperation 64 Business in the countries EURASIAN FINANCIAL & ECONOMIC HERALD | #1(6) 2019 65 with Eurasian countries and in the investment promotion for the development of enterprises as well as in commercialization of the fundamental technologies in the province. Besides, Mr. Choi Won-Kyoo informed that the new governor of the province is currently providing governmental support to SME companies, and is seeking for private investments as well.
It is worth mentioning that Gyeonggi-do province is always ready to assist in the search for suitable Korean partners and technologies, to provide information about support programs for R&D both at the level of the region and at the governmental level, as well as to ensure administrative and financial support. For a start of cooperation Gyeonggi-do can offer to set up an office or a representative office of a partner company on the territory of the province.
In conclusion it is important to say that potential economic partners from the EAEU and CIS countries willing to cooperate with counterparties on the territory of the Republic of Korea will find in Gyeonggi-do assistance to speed up their business in the current conditions and at the current level.