Kim Geon Deputy Minister, Korea-Visegrad Group Bilateral Video Conference... "Exchange and Cooperation Must Continue Despite COVID-19"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Kim Geon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, held a series of video conferences with the deputy foreign ministers and deputy ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) from the 5th to the 11th. Both sides evaluated the close cooperation achieved during the process of overcoming the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and discussed ways to expand cooperation for economic recovery after COVID-19.

The V4 is a group of four Central European countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. These countries are famous among our citizens as beautiful tourist destinations, but they are also key countries for South Korea’s exports and investments to Europe. The V4 countries represent the largest export market within the EU, accounting for about 20% of South Korea’s EU exports in 2019.

Over the past five years, investments by Korean companies in the V4 countries have increased nearly 30-fold (accumulated about 8 billion USD in the four countries), making them the largest investment destination within the EU. In particular, recently, investments by Korean companies related to electric vehicle batteries have been actively made, making these countries major partners for companies involved in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Deputy Minister Kim and the V4 participants expressed gratitude for mutual cooperation during the COVID-19 situation and highly evaluated the essential exchange and cooperation continuing through close communication between both sides despite the pandemic. Deputy Minister Kim said, “We appreciate the V4 countries for supporting the return of our citizens and cooperating for the exceptional entry of our businesspeople during the COVID-19 situation.”

The V4 participants highly evaluated the activities of Korean companies in their countries and expressed their intention to continue cooperating to ensure smooth investment activities by Korean companies in the future.

The meeting participants agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas where South Korea and the V4 countries have strengths: △ Fourth Industrial Revolution fields (such as electric vehicle batteries), △ health and ICT, and △ cybersecurity. Both sides evaluated that Korean companies are actively investing particularly in the electric vehicle battery sector within the Fourth Industrial Revolution fields and agreed to continue supporting cooperation in this area.

They also agreed to expand cooperation in the health sector, including ICT technologies that proved useful during the COVID-19 response process. Furthermore, considering the increase in non-face-to-face exchanges in political, economic, and social fields due to COVID-19, they agreed to further strengthen cooperation in the cybersecurity sector.

The meeting participants agreed that economic revitalization after the COVID-19 crisis will be a pressing issue for the international community, and since both South Korea and the V4 countries have a high proportion of foreign trade, they will jointly strive to maintain an open multilateral order.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Kim and the V4 participants exchanged opinions on major bilateral issues between South Korea and each V4 country and hoped that diplomatic schedules, somewhat delayed due to COVID-19, would normalize as soon as possible.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.