Institut Pasteur's outstanding debt to Korea
This is the first in a two-part contribution on Institut Pasteur Korea. ― ED.
By Hakim Djaballah
What started as cooperation between Korea and France first saw an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation between Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and Institut Pasteur Paris (IPP) in 2003, followed by an executed 10-year general agreement. Under it, the French should invest 148 billion won and the Koreans 124 billion won. Institute Pasteur Korea (IPK) was launched with a further 30 billion won cash injection from Gyeonggi Province. The cost of the new IPK building was shared between the central government and the province for 20 billion won each.
I arrived 10 years later to find a financially corrupt, troubled, and inept institute with its stakeholders at odds. My journey began between a rock and a hard place. IPP had pushing a diplomatic agenda to renew the 10-year agreement, and felt like a colonial power wanting more for nothing. IPP President Christian Brechot acted like Napoleon on a mission to conquer or save the world in the name of Dr. Louis Pasteur. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), on the other hand, demanded a 50 percent reduction in the workforce and self-sufficiency of the bankrupt and inept institute. Its officers put up a barrage of bureaucratic obstacles at every step of the way. Korea failed to demand IPP financial contribution; instead, its officers began the policy of slowly suffocating IPK by reducing its operating budget.
MSIP and Gyeonggi blasted IPK for poor 10-year performance with no tangible results ― a first and very unusual public criticism of the outcome of your own doing. Both were represented at the board level and through their spy networks. Not forgetting the daily requests for reports and random audits, it is ironic that their diligent officers could have missed the telltale signs of poor performance. They were, perhaps, playing to the tune of the growing far-right nationalist movement, or merely incompetent.
Unwilling to honor his commitments in Korea, Brechot decides to seek funds elsewhere. I was summoned to Paris to be asked to initiate a trademark dispute over the right to use the name "Pasteur" in Korea, by the Dairy Corp. Pasteur Milk, which merged with the multinational conglomerate Lotte. IPP viewed this as lucrative for both IPP and IPK, since the illegal use of the name began in April 1987. I refused this request but met with Lotte executives in July 2015 to discuss joint education programs.
Brechot's official visit to Korea in December 2014 was met with MSIP slamming its doors on him; a strong intervention from the then French ambassador to Korea, Jerome Pasquier, failed to secure an audience. The former chairwoman of the IPP board of directors, Rose-Marie Van Lerberghe, was dispatched to Seoul in September 2015 but she received the same treatment. A reminder, perhaps, that Korea is not an old French colony and Brechot's international credibility is not what it seems.
The yin and yang remain in full swing with MSIP unable to close this horrific chapter. IPK has undoubtedly failed in its mission and at a taxpayer's cost of over 200 billion won. It has benefited the French more than the home team. Your Chinese neighbors, on the other hand, resolved their sticky situation by closing and nationalizing the failed Pasteur institutes in Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively. IPP financial commitment to IPK is now well over 230 billion won, more than its entire annual budget. Will IPP honor its financial obligation in Korea?
Dr. Hakim Djaballah is former CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK). The claim he makes in this column may not represent The Korea Times’ editorial consent. — ED.