An Excellent Opportunity to Strengthen Economic Ties Between Korea and Norway

By Morten H Westvik
Commercial Counselor
Royal Norwegian Embassy in Korea

The visit by Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette Marit to Korea from May 8-11 signals a strengthening of economic ties between Korea and Norway.

In connection with the royal visit to Korea, one important aim is to further strengthen excellent bilateral relations between our two nations.

Looking at the parallels/complementarities and priorities and the differences between Korea and Norway, a few key areas have been selected which purpose are to enhance existing and establish bilateral and R&D cooperation between our countries.

As such, there will be seminars both in Seoul and Busan. In Seoul, the focus is on LNG, new and renewable sources of energy, ICT and tourism, and in Busan maritime and offshore, marine and seafood.

A business delegation of about 100 executives from the selected industry sectors will be attending seminars, holding presentations and seeking business opportunities with Korean counterparts.

In addition research institutions and universities are represented, as the cooperation in the R&D field and exchange of students and researchers between Korea and Norway have been expanding strongly over recent years.

On a note of interest, mention should be made of the provision for foreign students exemption from payment of school fees in Norway.

Since the first ship was delivered to a Norwegian ship-owner in 1979, more than 300 ships has been build and a large number are on order today.

Looking at the number of semi-submersible rigs, FPSOs and drill ships on order at Korean shipyards, about 40 percent are contracted from Norwegian owners.

Without doubt the trade relations within the maritime and offshore sector will continue to grow, given the shift within the Korean shipyard industry focusing on attracting more advance and technology heavy commercial vessels and offshore vessels.

This bearing in mind Norway’s long maritime history and strong capabilities harvest from the North Sea oil exploration, within in the fields of ship design, offshore technology and oil exploration, automation, LNG, sub-sea energy production, just to mention a few.

Strong opportunities do exist in the field of LNG and distributed LNG terminals, hereto logistics and application of new technological solutions.
Korea is a world leader and global player in the ICT industry. In terms of consumer behavior, mobile penetration and Internet usage, Norway and Korea are similar.

The main difference is that Korea has build a global industry within the fields of consumer electronics and ICT, and 80 percent of this growth has come from the hardware side of the business.

Norway, on the other hand, although in monetary terms much less than Korea, has strong capabilities in the software and application side, which accounts for 80 percent of total ICT output in Norway.

It is a little known fact in Korea that most of the GSM protocol was developed in Norway by NTNU/SINTEF, SINTEF being Scandinavia’s largest independent research organization.

Another example is Opera Software of Norway, which was ranked as the best browser in the world by PC World in 2004.

Today its browser is used by Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Windows Mobile, to mention a few.

There is growing interest in the ICT segment to develop closer business ties between Korea and Norway, and the possibilities for complementary interests/goals that here exist provide a win-win situation.

Several Norwegian SME companies and academic institutions are currently cooperating with MNCs and SMEs in Korea.

With strong advances in Norway and Korea related to medical and technological solutions, and the integral part ICT plays hereto, allows for new business opportunities between our two nations.

This capitalizing on complementarities that exist for the joint development and implementation of future oriented hospital healthcare and medical solutions as well as solution for the tackling the needs and challenges of the strong growth in the geriatric population in Norway and Korea.

Korea is one of the world’s largest importers of LNG, crude oil and LPG. Norway on the other hand is one of the largest exporters of crude oil and gas in the world.

This difference from both economic and technological points of view creates opportunities.

Over the years, Norwegian companies have developed strong capabilities in the field of solar power voltage technology, advanced solutions for large windmills (3MW or more) based onshore and offshore, as well as technology solutions that harvest energy from tidal differences.

Strong capabilities have also been developed within the area of fuel cell technology, hereto nano and materials technology.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest to develop economic and R&D relations between Korea and Norway within this sector.

Both Korea and Norway have a long tradition as fishery nations and the dependency on seafood and aquaculture are important to both nations.

The potential for further economic development between the two countries within the marine sector is great.

In addition to seafood export from Norway to Korea dominated today by salmon and mackerel, other potential species could be cod and herring.

Aquaculture is a sector that looks promising for strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

The growth of seafood consumption and the demand for various types of value added and health related products from seafood in years to come will grow strongly.