During the last week (June 6 - 11, 2022), representatives of the SARIO agency in mutual cooperation between the National Project Department and the Foreign Trade Department) participated in the Business Mission in South Korea.The business mission started with an important meeting at the Slovak Embassy in Seoul. Slovak business entities, together with a delegation of academics and representatives of the Žilina self-governing region, had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Korean Robotics Association - KAR as well as representatives of the Korean company INTERX. Short presentations were followed by informal networking of both parties.The next day, the delegation attended the Smart Tech Korea 2022 event, which brought dozens of technology trends and industry, development opportunities 4.0, as well as B2B meetings that have the potential to shape future partnerships.Thursday's schedule was focused on a visit to the south of the country, where the participants of the business mission first visited Jeonbuk National University and then GIST - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, where they were presented with research and development laboratories. Both universities have shown an eminent interest in establishing cooperation and concluding a Memorandum of Understanding, which could be a building block of cooperation between these institutions. On the same day, part of entrepreneurs, along with representatives of the Žilina Self-governing Region, took part in pre-arranged negotiations with the Chungcheongnam Provincial Office as well as the adjacent university.The last day of the mission was, in addition to other B2B meetings at Smart Tech Korea 2022, culminating in a meeting at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Seoul with the Korean-Slovak Association and selected Korean issues that favored future cooperation in automation and robotics with Slovak companies. The interconnection of these entities is a very important part of building trade relations between Slovakia and South Korea.The business mission has brought countless opportunities for cooperation for companies as well as for academia. To further develop the international business as well as academic relations, SARIO plans to organize another mission to South Korea in the autumn during the Robot World 2022.
