President Iván Duque will begin a state visit to South Korea from this Tuesday, August 24, in which he will develop an agenda in which several agreements are expected to be signed on issues of economic reactivation and vaccination against covid-19.
The president will meet with authorities such as the president, Moon Jae-in, the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, and different business leaders, with whom he will discuss issues such as support for small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurship and innovation, protection of the environment and health.
Likewise, the Colombian delegation will seek to promote the opportunities that the country offers in terms of agricultural products and energy transition.
“We are going with a vision of the Government, and also of Colombian businessmen to strengthen commercial ties, since we have the free trade agreement. Export more, bring investment, cooperation in vaccines, in health, science and technology”, highlighted the head of state.
And he added: “we want Korea to come to Colombia with its companies, to bring investment in all the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution; and we are also going to pay tribute to the heroes of our country who defended democracy and institutionality in Korea 70 years ago. years. We will strengthen the ties between our nations “
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Duque will arrive in Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Tuesday and will remain there until Thursday, August 26. The delegation that accompanies the president is made up of the Colombian ambassador to Korea, Juan Carlos Caiza; the Chief of Staff of the Presidency, María Paula Correa; the Ministers of Health, Fernando Ruiz; Commerce, María Ximena Lombana; Environment, Carlos Eduardo Correa; Agriculture, Rodolfo Zea; Minas y Energía, Diego Mesa, and Culture, Angélica Mayolo.
There will also be the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Javier Echeverri, and the Director of iNNpulsa, Francisco José Noguera, among others.
Rich agenda
Within the framework of the visit, the countries will sign a memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“This instrument will serve to support MSMEs and the startup ecosystem, and will allow knowledge transfer, digital transformation, human capital training and technical assistance for the incorporation of technology”, highlighted from the Presidency.
The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, María Ximena Lombana, stated in this regard that “the Government of Colombia has been working on this memorandum for several months with South Korea, which is a great commercial ally and with whom we want to strengthen ties that will surely will benefit the reactivation of micro, small and medium-sized companies in both countries. “
On the other hand, the countries will analyze the local production capacity of vaccines, within the framework of international cooperation.
The Minister of Health and the President of the Republic will meet with directors of the International Vaccine Institute to finalize a memorandum of understanding.
It should be noted that in June a meeting was held between the Government and the South Korean company Sk Bioscience, in order to explore a possible alliance for technology transfer and subsequent vaccine production in Colombia. The company is part of the SK Group, which makes the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The different cabinet officials will also hold various meetings and activities on exploring opportunities for collaboration between entrepreneurs from both countries, approach for energy transition, development of a mechanism to establish areas of collaboration in environmental protection and increase in agricultural exports.
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