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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Political, economic friendship, partnership of Serbia and Korea

Belgrade/Busan, 9 September 2023

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic arrived today, on the second day of her official visit to the Republic of Korea, from the country's capital Seoul to the second largest city, Busan, where she met with representatives of Korean companies.

The delegation of Serbia, headed by Brnabic, first had a working lunch with President of the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jang In-Hwa and the city's Ambassador of International Relations Shin Jae-hyun.

The delegation of the Republic of Korea included the Ambassador of that country to Serbia Jaewoong Lee.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of companies from Busan.

The Republic of Korea applied to host Expo 2030, so during the meeting they discussed this with the Serbian delegation.

Partners from South Korea asked us if we could convey our experience and knowledge to them. It is a great honour when a country like Korea asks you how you did something and how they can replicate our success, said Brnabic.

According to her, all Korean conglomerates were created in Busan, and later they moved to Seoul.

Busan has a population of 3.5 million and 21 universities. We invited the representatives of the city to attend the "Wine Vision 2023" fair in November, and they accepted in principle. We want to market wines and promote winemakers on the Korean market, the Prime Minister stated.

The Prime Minister visited the company Samwoo Immersion, which deals with information and communication technologies, and on that occasion she met with its CEO David Kim.

The main focus of Samwoo Immersion's business operation is virtual reality, and its CEO presented to Brnabic the ways in which virtual reality can contribute to safety and the development of new capabilities.

Brnabic also visited the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency and the Korea-ASEAN ICT Convergence Village.

Busan is the centre of information technology and creative industries for all of South Korea, and the country is a leader in these fields. They are widely known for their gaming industry, and Serbia is one of the champions of the gaming industry in Europe. It seems to me that we have finally found a partner for creative industries in Korea, Brnabic stated.

According to her, upon her return to Belgrade, she will hold a meeting with the team in order to start work on the Cooperation Agreement with the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency.

Perhaps we can sign that agreement in November already in order to connect our companies dealing with gaming and information technologies, creative industries, metaverse and artificial intelligence with those in Korea and jointly promote Serbia and Korea, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Serbia has recently signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, so this visit was a good opportunity for the Prime Minister of Serbia to discuss concrete plans.

We received a lot of support on the way to the ASEAN partner country status after my visit to Singapore last year. We sent a team to visit all member countries and received written confirmation that we are a partner country. It is important for us to use the Treaty to promote our economy and bring in their investors. It is a huge market and potential, we will see how Korea did it, which has the same status as Serbia - a partner country, the Prime Minister pointed out.

The Mayor of Busan hosted a luncheon in honour of Prime Minister Brnabic, and on that occasion Brnabic had a short conversation with the Mayor.

I am sure that this visit is the beginning of a new era of political and economic friendship and partnership between Serbia and Korea. We will work on it, Brnabic said.

She expressed her hope that a contract with the Korean conglomerate SK will be signed in November, and by the end of the year she expects to start negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement, that is, the Free Trade Agreement.

The Prime Minister wrapped up her visit to the Republic of Korea with the visit to Busan.