The Korea-Czech Business Forum, organized by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, was held on Thursday, March 23rd. This event brought together an impressive Czech delegation, demonstrating the increasing attractiveness Korea represents for Czech companies and institutions and their joint desire to pursue projects between the two countries. 

Korea has been one of the biggest foreign investors in the Czech Republic over the last 15 years, with a total of 3.9 Billion Euros of Korean direct investment in the Czech Republic, leading to the creation of more than 17.000 jobs. Of the total, 2.331 billion Euros have been directed to the automotive sector alone. For comparison, the investments made by Korean automobile companies are significantly higher than those made by European partners Toyota PSA and Volkswagen, whose investments respectively reached 915M€ and 739M€ between 1993 and 2020 (CzechInvest, 2021).  

 

In addition to the automotive industry, Korea is expanding its contribution in the Czech Republic to other areas such as Artificial Intelligence & Digital, Healthtech, Mobility, Aerospace and Defense, Advanced Industrial Technologies, Ecotech, and Space, as shown in Table 1, which highlights the broad Korean contribution across sectors, while Table 2 shows the name of the biggest Korean companies investing. 

In response to the Korean engagement in the Czech Republic and the demonstrated desire to reinforce mutual ties, Korean Air re-opened this week the Seoul-Praha flight line, reinforcing conditions for further cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries.  

 

The successful collaboration Korea pursues with Republic Czech is a brilliant demonstration of the mutually beneficial interests Korea and European countries share culturally and economically. Therefore, KEY aims to continue monitoring and supporting the long-standing collaboration between Korea and Europe to ensure that future opportunities for collaboration are identified and pursued, as well as facilitate communication and exchange between Korean and European businesses and institutions by reinforcing the Korean networks in Europe and vice versa.

 

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