South Korea will step up its cooperation with Germany to bolster research and development for material, component and equipment industries as a part of the country’s efforts to wean reliance off Japanese supplies for IT bases following Tokyo’s export curbs.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a seminar with the Korea International Trade Association and Korea-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday in Seoul to agree to expand the share of joint R&D projects with Germany for the material, part and equipment sectors to more than 50 percent.

The two nations have spent 10.7 billion won ($8.95 million) in 25 R&D projects of small- and mid-sized firms of both countries since 2014. They also launched a new industry-academia partnership program last year and invested 600 million won in three new projects.

They plan to set up a Korea-Germany technology cooperation center next year to support collaboration of Korean materials and parts suppliers and German companies and research institutes, search for merger and acquisition deals and browse for alternative import markets. They will also hold a forum on November 28-29 in Seoul to enhance cooperation in setting standards for new industries such as future cars, smart manufacturing, materials and parts sectors.

“The future new industries could only grow with development of new materials and components,” said Trade Minister Sung Yun-mo at the seminar. “The two nations should focus their partnership in the material and part industries, which are backbone of the manufacturing sector.”

The ministry plans to hold a technology cooperation seminar with the U.S., France and Israel and business counseling session at the end of this month.

By Lim Sung-hyun and Choi Mira

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