President Park plans to meet Google founder

By Kim Tae-gyu

Google CEO Larry Page

President Park Geun-hye plans to meet Google founder and CEO Larry Page on Friday, during his planned visit to Korea this week, a source said Tuesday.

The meeting will follow one with Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Monday.

“The two are expected to talk about a creative economy, which is Park’s major economic goal to achieve over her five-year term,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

“Larry Page would be a perfect fit to represent a creative economy because the entrepreneur successfully transformed a small venture start-up into a global firm through imagination and innovation.”

Park’s flagship policy of building a creative economy aims to boost lackluster economic growth rates and create many good jobs through IT investments and venture start-ups.

Since her inauguration on Feb 25, Park has stressed that imaginative entrepreneurs who do not fear failure are most significant in realizing a creative economy.

Page fits the bill because he is famous for his early struggles in the late 1990s to find investors ready to gamble on Google. Back then, few believed a search engine could make money.

Yet, Page managed to make the company one of the foremost IT companies in the world alongside co-founder Sergei Brin and former chief executive Eric Schmidt.

The source said the 39-year-old IT entrepreneur may meet Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Choi Mun-kee as well as representatives of Samsung Electronics.

Cheong Wa Dae refused to confirm Park’s schedule, citing security reasons. Google Korea said the Seoul-based company is not aware of the specific plans of its global head.