The French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry and newly appointed French Ambassador to South Korea Philippe Lefort held a networking event for members of the FKCCI, highlighting the upcoming French-Korean tech summit, the FKCCI said. 

The event, the “FKCCI Networking Evening With the New French Ambassador to Korea,” took place Oct. 2 in central Seoul with roughly 80 FKCCI members and related officials in attendance.

Its purpose was to give the French business community here a chance to meet Lefort, who was posted to Seoul last month.

“With a new season come new projects. In order to sustain its ambition for the next years, the FKCCI will move to a new office by the end of November,” David-Pierre Jalicon, FKCCI chairman, said in his opening speech.

“In the coming weeks I count on all your support for the ‘Tech For Good Summit’, a French-Korean forum we will hold on Nov. 27 together with the French tech Community Seoul during the K-Start-up week on the theme of technologies for the common good, featuring a pitch contest and panel discussions,” he added.

The FKCCI’s new office is to double in size in alignment with the expansion of the French business community here, he said, to facilitate networking and the sharing of ideas.

“I am glad we gather all here today…We all agree that there is a great potential in all fields of business, from agri-business, to startups, to digital industry, where all sorts of French-Korean partnerships are being implemented,” Lefort said.

“I would like to mention the success we have, as the French Korean project ‘Tech4Good Summit’ has won the bid to get French funds from the French Tech.”

The Tech4Good Summit 2019 is to be held Nov. 27-29 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul.

Lefort added that the French government had created an environment conducive to investment in France and to conducting business there, and he urged Koreans to consider expanding their presence in the European country. 

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)