Richard Schenk, Vice President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber during his welcome address

The conference „Innovation and Technology in Korea – An International Perspective“ was jointly organized by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the University of Duisburg-Essen and Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea. It was meant to deepen the outcomes of a former conference (2007) on “R&D and Technology in Korea” and the subsequent book publication (Joerg Mahlich and Werner Pascha (eds): Innovation and Technology in Korea. Challenges of a Newly Advanced Economy, Heidelberg and New York: Physica/Springer 2007).Financial support of the Academy of Korean Studies is gratefully acknowledged.

The two day conference was divided into three parts, a design forum, the academic conference and the annual meeting of the Austrian-Korean Association. In the first session Austrian designers could inform themselves about business opportunities in their field in Korea. Members of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber gave an overview of the design market as well as legal aspects regarding patents and so on. An Austrian designer with long term experience working in Korea talked about his expert knowledge.

The academic conference kicked off in the afternoon and continued the second day. Distinguished experts on Korea’s innovation system gave presentations on various topics. Michael Keenan from OECD for instance introduced the recently finished 300 pages long report on Koreas Innovation Policy. Korean scholars from Seoul National University, KDI School of Public Policy and Management and the University of British Colombia presented their research on Innovation and Technology in Korea with a focus on mobile phones, economic growth and knowledge transfer in international joint ventures. Among the German presenters where Margot Schueller from the Institute of Asian Studies in Hamburg, Joerg Buechel from the university of Tuebingen as well as Sarah Kohls from Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea. American scholar and researcher Matthew Shapiro from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago talked about key features of growth and sustainability while using the Kusnets-curve for his empirical analyses.

The conference finished up with the annual meeting of the Austrian-Korea Association in the Austrian parliament.

Michael Keenan introducing the OECD report on Koreas Innovation Policy

The conference attracted many participants to Vienna