South Korea learns from Upper Austrian Clusters

Delegation from South Korea (c) Business Upper Austria
Delegation from South Korea (c) Business Upper Austria

13.08.2018

A delegation from South Korea, including representatives of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Korean Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) and regional technology park managers and researchers, spent two days in Linz at the end of August 2018 to see how SMEs in Upper Austria cooperate.

At the meeting, topics such as public-private partnerships, innovation management as well as research and development support for SMEs were discussed, and the plastic cluster as a best practice example of successful networking was presented to our guests. Whereas in Austria, SME innovation through close cooperation with research is strongly supported, on the South Korean market rather large enterprises dominate the economy. To increase the density of SMEs, South Korea could learn from the tested structures in Austria, while being the most innovative country in R&D category (Bloomberg Innovation Index), the East Asian country could enhance the further improvement of R&D activities in Austria.