Minister Schultz visits South Korea
From 17 to 20 June, Minister Schultz van Haegen (Infrastructure & the Environment) is visiting South Korea. The Minister is in the country with representatives from companies, knowledge institutions in the water sector and the field of delta technology, water-related agriculture, urban and rural area planning, and energy. Twenty companies and organisations are participating in the mission organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation.
The focus of this business delegation is on water management due to the problem of flooding in South Korea. The mission will examine water availability and quality, the relationship between agriculture and water, as well as water-related research developments like water-generated energy. Dutch companies and knowledge institutions have a great deal of knowledge and experience in these fields and South Korea would like to make use of this. Minister Schultz van Haegen: “The coastal areas of the Netherlands and South Korea have similarities. We are fighting the battle against water together, and we share the ambition of getting more from water. Our cooperation is ready for further development.”
Together with HRH The Prince of Orange, Minister Schultz will visit the world’s fair Expo 2012 in Yeosu. The theme of the Expo is: The Living Ocean and Coast, and the Dutch pavilion has Sustainable Dutch Deltas as its theme. At a dinner in Seoul in the evening, as part of the Dutch trade delegation’s mission, the Minister and the Prince, together with the Dutch business delegation, will receive the South Korean Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Vice Minister of Environment and the Minister for the Four Rivers Restoration project. Several partnership agreements between Dutch and South Korean companies will be signed during the dinner in the areas of smart grid technology for renewable energy (for example, wind turbines) and automated systems and technology for animal welfare for sustainable livestock farming.
On 19 June, Minister Schultz will open the Water is Life seminar on South Korea’s water problems and the solutions the Netherlands can offer. On 20 June she will speak at a seminar on South Korean-Dutch cooperation in the Saemangeum Polder project within the framework of land redevelopment and the fight against water.
