On 13 November 2013, during the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Republic of Korea a Memorandum of Cooperation will be signed in the field of research and business development between the Skolkovo Foundation and the Korea Research Council for Industrial Science and Technology (KRCSIT).
The Memorandum provides for the parties to work together on research and business development, in particular the creation of the Russian-Korean Innovation Centre to be situated in Skolkovo. The document will be signed by Viktor Vekselberg, President of the Skolkovo Foundation and Ho Nam Chang, KRCSIT Chairman.
“The partnership with South Korean companies and agencies that oversee the development of high technology, has special meaning for us,” - said Viktor Vekselberg. “The Republic of Korea is the world leader in innovation. It has been ranked first in the level of development of information technologies and the second most innovative country in the world. In turn, the desire of the Korean side to cooperate with Skolkovo indicates that the Republic of Korea is interested not only in the sizeable Russian market, but also in sharing in Russia’s intellectual resources for the benefit of innovative development of our countries and the global economy.
During President Putin's visit to Seoul a memorandum of understanding will also be signed between the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SkolTech), Russian industrial group En+ Group and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The MoU proposes a study for the development of power grids in North-East Asia in order to create optimal routes for the supply of electricity and energy-intensive products. The research will be carried out at the Research Centre for Energy Systems at SkolTech. The first phase will study the macroeconomic situation, conditions of energy markets and see a detailed feasibility study of North-East Asia power grids prepared.
The agreements will strengthen the international legal framework of the Russian-South Korean partnership within the framework of the Skolkovo project. They follow a December 2012 agreement on cooperation between the company Samsung and the Skolkovo Foundation, which became the first Asian corporation to become one of the industrial partners of the Foundation. That agreement involves the creation of a R&D centre at Skolkovo in the following areas: advanced algorithms for highly intelligent IT products, biomedical devices and solutions and a new generation of energy-efficiency solutions. The centre will involve 50 specialists, 90% of them being Russian scientists and engineers. The Foundation and the Skolkovo Technopark have cooperation agreements with the Korea Research Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications (ETRI, since 2011) and the Korean technology park Gvandzhou (since 2012).