An agreement signing ceremony was held at 2:00 PM on April 18 at Natural Sciences Campus (Suwon) of Sungkyunkwan University for BASF’s establishment of the Global R&D Center and efforts for the invigoration of the local economy. The following personalities were in attendance: Governor of Gyeonggi-do Kim Moon-soo, Mayor of Suwon City Yeom Tae-young, BASF Korea President Sin U-seong , Director General for Cross-Border Investment Policy of MOTIE Kim Chang-gyu , President of Sungkyunkwan University Jun-young Kim, and Commissioner of Investment Korea Ki-won Han.

BASF Germany was established in Ludwigshafen near Heidelberg. It became the world’s first business to develop Styropol, which is Expanded Polystyrene. In 2012, it was ranked 65th in Fortune’s Global Top 500 businesses (sales: € 78.7 billion).

It started operation in South Korea in 1954. Established in 1998, BASF Korea employs a total of 1,028 workers and records annual sales of 2.7 trillion won (as of 2013).

The R&D Center of BASF will become the business’s first R&D center in Korea to focus on research on innovative solutions, such as next-generation display including OLED and electronic materials. This will be the first electronic material-related R&D Center to be established by a non-Korean business in Korea, considered a leading country in display technologies.

Commenting on the R&D Center, BASF Korea President Sin U-seong  noted that Gyeonggi-do is an optimal site to implement a cutting-edge R&D project, since it has good-quality researchers and research infrastructure.

During the event, attendees agreed to strive for the invigoration of the local economy through collaboration between the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), Sungkyunkwan University, and Suwon City.

BASF said it would consider Suwon-si as the site for its additional R&D investment and operate programs (such as the provision of scholarship fund, internship, industrial training, etc.) for attracting local talented people during the 5-year agreement period. It would also strive for collaboration with local businesses in the province in the following areas: joint marketing, outsourcing, and investment in businesses with which it could form a strategic partnership.

MOTIE will provide support, including the necessary consulting, for the establishment of partnership between BASF and promising businesses in Gyeonggi-do through KOTRA Invest Korea.

Gyeonggi-do expects the R&D Center to realize about 220 billion won worth of industrial contribution effect and 42 high-end jobs.

In his speech during the event, Governor of Gyeonggi-do Kim Moon-soo promised that the province will become a center of the country’s industrial R&D with the establishment of BASF’s Global R&D Center following similar R&D centers already established, including Siemens Medical Systems’ (2005) and GE Healthcare’s (2013). According to him, efforts to attract more business R&D centers in Gyeonggi-do will continue.

“Suwon boasts of adequate infrastructure as a city where prestigious display businesses, Gwanggyo Techno valley, urban support facilities, and Suwon Industrial Complex are located. We will continue making efforts to be reborn as an R&D cluster through the formation of the Suwon Smartpolis R&D Park (on the previous site of the Suwon Airbase) and the Suwon R&D Science Park (in Yuljeon-dong),” Mayor of Suwon City Yeom Tae-young said.