.jpg/dims/resize/740/optimize) |
| President of Ile-de-France Region Valerie Pecressem, fourth from right in front row, attends the "French Tech in Paris Region" event with French Ambassador to Korea Fabien Penone, center in front row, at Tips Town in Seoul on July 4. / Courtesy of the French Embassy |
By Rachel Lee
The French Embassy hosted a technology promotion to attact Korean businesspeople and investors with the world's leading innovation ecosystem.
President of Ile-de-France Region Valerie Pecresse as well as representatives from eight start-ups and other companies attended the "French Tech in Paris Region" event at Tips Town in Seoul on July 4.
Pecresse, who is a former minister for higher education and research and former minister of budget, joined with the companies to introduce Paris Region's start-up environment to Korean investors and discussed a wide range of topics, including e-education, green tech and e-tourism.
Paris Region is one of 18 in France.
"Paris Region is the first economic region of Europe with 12 million inhabitants, 400,000 corporations and 40 percent of the French research and development activity," Pecresse said. "It is one of the most important innovation hot spots, with its 100,000 researchers, seven competitiveness clusters and 5,000 start-ups. It boasts the highest number of high-tech patents filed."
Pecresse presented a recently launched program that supports innovative projects in public transport and urban development.
"The region will support 100 projects of innovative eco-districts," she said.
Pecresse also talked about the region's strengths in the automotive, aerospace and defense, tourism and creative sectors.
The Paris region hosts "90 percent of all French film and audio-visual production that offers a global center of excellence encompassing more than 260,000 people working for 11,000 organizations," Pecresse said.
She recently called on British financial companies to leave London for Paris following the Brexit referendum.
"This also applies to Korean banks," she said. "We will always remain in the European Union.
"Like Seoul, the Paris region belongs to the limited group of the biggest metropolitan regions of the world. Because nothing is ever set in stone, I would like the Paris region to remain a highly attractive place for creative entrepreneurs, start-ups and all economic sectors. Business development and the promotion of innovative sectors are the key pillars of the Paris region project. To face these challenges, we need the dynamism of French economic actors. But I also want to call on Korean talent to consider Paris as a relevant place for their international development strategy."
French start-ups, such as the famous Ecole 42, the MOOC European leader Open Classrooms, the French leader in 3D digital simulation Vectuel, the energy management company Evolution Energie and the original tourism start-up 4 Roues sous un Parapluie, attended the event to introduce themselves and find partnerships here. On the Korean side, three start-ups — Yolk, Travalloon and MK International — presented their innovative products.
Two memorandums of understanding signing ceremonies followed: one between Creative Valley and the Small & Medium Business Corporation, and the other between Creative Valley and the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development.
The embassy said innovation — and more specifically start-ups — is one of the main pillars of French-Korean cooperation, reinforced by the two countries' leaders during their summits in November last year in Seoul and in June this year in Paris.
![[INTERVIEW] Yim Si-wan went extra mile to portray legendary athlete in 'Road to Boston'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/fdd49ca391cf4ce785bd7136efd0bfa2.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Virtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/bcc387606cf7451c94f51a5978960c9f.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
