Ericcson, the global ICT group based in Sweden will invest a total of US$1.5 billion to Korea for the joint development in green technology area for the next five years. Hans Vestberg, the chairman of Ericcson revealed this plan to President Lee Myung-bak who is currently on state visit to Sweden on Sunday, July 12 (local time).Vestberg, in his meeting with President Lee explained that his company will open a R&D Center in Korea for joint research with local companies, using Korea as the test-bed in fields of green technology and 4th generation IT technology. The company would also increase the number of employees in Korean branch from current 80 to some 1,000.
The cooperation between Ericsson and Korean companies is likely to further upgrade the broadcasting network of the country and help advance to the world market. The mutual cooperation between Wibro technology headed by Korea and Long Term Evolution Technology (LTE) headed by Ericcson, especially is likely to make the two sides lead the 4th generation (4G) IT market which is only in its birth stage.
The prospect is expected to attract the participation of some of the high-ranking businesses in Korea including Samsung and LG Electronics.
President Lee, openly welcoming the large scale investment, expressed his wish to see Ericcson's active cooperation with not only big companies but also with mid and small companies that have potential. Lee stressed that he would make all efforts to realize fair competition between local and overseas companies in Korea.
Prior to his meeting with Lee, Vestberg also met with Choi See-joong the chairman of the Korea Communications Committee whose trip to Sweden coincided with the president. Choi also looked around Kista Science Park known as the Silicon Valley of Europe.
Vestberg lauded Korea for being one of the most wired nations in the world and for its pursue of low carbon green growth policy, thus forming an excellent test-bed for information technology.
After the talks Ericcson and KT (Korea Telecom) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Choi and Sweden's Vice Minister of Trade Gunnar Wieslander watching. The MOU of the two sides stipulates joint development of green mobile technology, joint establishment and operation of domestic pilot-network to assure quality and improvement and mutual cooperation to advance into the world market.
The latest momentum is also likely to help with other foreign investments in Korea.
Written By Kim Hee-sung
Korea.net Staff Writer
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