Gandhinagar, 4 November 2014

South Korean Ambassador to India Mr. Joon-Gyu Lee paid a courtesy visit to Gujarat Chief Minister Mrs. Anandiben Patel, here today.

During their meeting, both the leaders emphasized on developing further cooperation between South Korea and Gujarat in sectors like Marine Engineering and Maritime Human Resources Development.

In view of Korea’s expertise in SMEs at world level, Mrs. Patel made a deliberation with Mr. Lee to set-up Korean Industrial Parks in Gujarat to generate employments for Gujarati youths.

Gujarat is emerging as an automobile hub and Korea is a world leader in manufacturing of automobile parts and automobile, in such scenario the collaboration of Korean Industries with Gujarat would strengthen the possibilities of mutual industrial growth, the Chief Minister added.

Giving a positive response to this, Mr. Lee expressed willingness to extend Korean cooperation in the sectors like automobile, SME and Electronics.

Referring to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s dream project of setting up 100 Smart Cities India, Mrs. Patel told the Korean Envoy that some cities of Gujarat are part of this project and these cities could be developed as Smart Cities on the Korean Patterns.

Responding to Mrs. Patel’s plea to play positive role in setting up ‘Home Toilets’ with people’s participation in Gujarat by Korean Industry as its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Mr. Lee stated that Korea would always be willing to make its CSR contributions after making deliberation with concerned departments of the Gujarat Government.

Later, Mrs. Patel invited Mr. Lee to participate with a Korean Delegation in the state’s mega business event, ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit-2015’ (VGGIS-2015) to be held in Gandhinagar in January-2015. The invitation was accepted by the Korean Envoy and he assured Gujarat Chief Minister that a high-level Korean Delegation would arrive here to participate in CEOs Meet to be held at the VGGIS-2015.

Others who attended the meeting included CM’s Chief Principal Secretary Mr. K. Kailashnathan, Principal Secretary (Industry) Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Science & Technology Secretary Mr. Haider, Mr. Ajay Bhadu, Secretary to Chief Minister, and high ranked officials of the Korean Embassy.