Prague, Dec 2 (CTK) – South Korea offers the completion of nuclear power plants, and also military helicopters to Czechs, while the Czech Republic may supply advanced technologies to South Korea, the two countries´ presidents, Milos Zeman and Park Geun-hye, said after a meeting on Wednesday.
The two countries´ delegations also met this morning. In the presence of the presidents, several memorandums were signed to facilitate bilateral cooperation in the areas of science, culture, health care and industry.
Zeman said he believes in the reunification of South and North
Zeman said the Czech Republic has kept its embassy in North Korea at the request of the South Koreans.
Park said the Czech Republic could contribute to the smooth course of the two countries´ unification with its own experience.
Park and Zeman also denounced the latest terrorist crimes.
Park arrived for an official visit to the Czech Republic on Tuesday evening. She is to leave the Czech Republic on Friday.
During her visit, she is to attend a summit meeting of the Visegrad Four (V4) and South Korea and she will have a meeting with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
Besides the Czech Republic, V4 is also comprised of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Zeman officially welcomed Park this morning. Their tete-a-tete meeting was followed by a meeting of the national delegations, at which the Czech Republic was represented by Deputy PM Pavel Belobradek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), Deputy Health Minister Lenka Teska Arnostova (Social Democrats, CSSD), Culture Minister Daniel Herman (KDU-CSL) and Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Vladimir Baertl.
The talks culminated by signing a package of memorandums.
The memorandum falling under the jurisdiction of Belobradek, deputy PM for science and research, outlines bilateral cooperation in the areas of information and communication technologies (ICT).
“In the ICT area, we and South Korea have a lot to offer to each other. We want to cooperate, for example, in developing new digital solutions and services, satellite communication, data protection and cyber security,” Belobradek said.
On the part of Korea, the memorandum was signed by Science Minister Choi Yanghee.
Belobradek said he informed Choi Yanghee about the Czech state-of-the-art scientific centres that work with unique equipment and are open to foreign cooperation.
He said the two countries may also cooperate in the areas of nanotechnologies and energy.
“The issue of economic cooperation, also in the energy area, will dominate the [agenda of] the Korean president´s working visit,” Zeman´s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said.
The two countries´ businesspeople had a meeting in the Hilton hotel this morning.
This afternoon, Zeman and Park took part in a Czech-Korean business forum at which the latter said the Czech Republic, where more than 20 Korean firms have their branches, has become a major starting point for Korean firms´ further penetration of the European market.
On the other hand, Korean investments help the Czech Republic increase economic growth and decrease unemployment, Park said.
She stressed the importance of the direct Seoul-Prague air connection, launched in 2004.
Park said bilateral trade based mainly on car industry and engineering industry products must be further promoted by raising cooperation in the supplies of component parts and extending business networks. Cooperation in branches with a high value added must be also enhanced, Park said.
Companies from South Korea, which Sobotka (CSSD) visited earlier this year, have so far invested over 75 billion crowns within 29 projects in the Czech Republic, thereby creating or planning to create almost 12,000 new jobs.
South Korea is the third largest foreign investor in the Czech Republic, after Germany and Japan.
Most recently, the largest South Korean investors in the country were the Nexen Tyre and Hyunday Mobis companies.
The Doosan Industries, on its part, is interested in the planned extension of the two Czech nuclear power plants.
