The Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday began searching for this year’s most innovative companies for its fifth Innovation Awards.

The event was initiated in 2015 to foster innovative ideas and strategies of companies with business in Korea as well as to promote trade and business cooperation between Germany and Korea.

This year’s event kicked off at WeWork Seollung II in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, with an opening speech by Barbara Zollmann, president and CEO of KGCCI. The four winning companies of the previous year also presented their business ideas.

In addition, Ingrid Drechsel, chairman of the KGCCI and president of Bayer Korea, who heads the jury of the KGCCI Innovation Awards, explained the criteria of the fifth installment of the awards.

She said, “For the sixth consecutive year, South Korea is on top of the Bloomberg Innovation Index followed by Germany in the second rank in 2019. This is a perfect fit to launch the fifth KGCCI Innovation Award in Korea. We hope to find innovative ideas and companies and to support them in realizing and accelerating their business in Korea as well as in a global market.”

The winners are selected and evaluated by a high-ranking German-Korean jury, made up of members from business, academia and research, under four criteria: degree of innovation; proven success in the market; positive effects to the company; and benefits for society.

Application for this year’s awards is open from March to May. The KGCCI will hold an awards ceremony on Sept. 27.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)