Israel has made it a priority to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Korea, says Israeli Ambassador to Korea Chaim Choshen.
During Israel’s 70th anniversary commemoration in Seoul last week, the ambassador also said his country is a world leader in research and development and more Korean companies, in addition to Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor, are welcome to operate R&D projects there.
“Our first priority is that we will be able to conclude the negotiations on the FTA between Israel and Korea and sign it soon,” Choshen said during an anniversary ceremony at Grand Hyatt Seoul on May 2.
The two countries have been in FTA negotiations since June 2016.
The ambassador said signing a bilateral FTA is a “very important task” and it would increase the trade volume from $2.3 billion to “a much higher sum.”
He said a possible trade deal would also yield many other benefits to Israel and Korea.
Israel’s higher-learning institutions and research centers are ranked top in the world and the country has grown into a “startup nation” and a “powerhouse of technologies and technological knowhow,” according to Choshen.
Multinational companies Intel, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and LG run R&D projects in Israel.
“Recently Hyundai Motor identified Israel as an important world center for the car industry and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Technion, the MIT of Israel related to autonomous cars. I sure hope more Korean companies will follow,” Choshen said.
The ambassador stressed that several Israeli scientists have won the Nobel Prize, and Israel is one of a few countries that could launch satellites and is a world leader in advanced agriculture.
“We are always happy to share our knowhow with other countries and indeed, we do so,” he said.
He pointed out that Israel has been a destination for pilgrimage tours and that the number of Korean tourists would “grow in years to come.”
More than 40,000 tourists from Korea visited Israel in 2017, up 30 percent from a year ago.
“I would like to use this opportunity and inform you that the Israeli tourist office in Seoul is now operating again at full capacity,” the ambassador said.
The commemoration drew Korean and international dignitaries.
They included former Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo, Rep. Kang Ghil-boo of the Liberty Korea Party who heads the union of parliamentarians of the two countries, as well as ambassadors in Seoul, such as Fabien Penone of France, Otar Berdzenishvili of Georgia, Stephan Auer of Germany, Vikram Doraiswami of India, Della Seta of Italy, Peteris Vaivars of Latvia, Alexander Timonin of Russia, Nozuko Gloria Bam of South Africa and Wylbur Simuusa of Zambia.
Source: Korean Times