The OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015/ World Science & Technology Forum is scheduled for October 19-21 at the Daejeon Convention Center (DCC). Representatives from roughly 50 nations’ science and technology sectors will attend the largest-ever OECD meeting for science and technology to discuss desirable future directions of policies pertaining to science and technology.
The OECD meeting for science and technology is drawing much attention as it will end with the adoption of a joint declaration, called ‘Daejon Declaration,’ which will set out the future direction of science and technology policy in the next decade.
“By leading discussions on policy issues related to science and technology, S. Korea can take its science diplomacy to new heights” said Rep. Min Byung-joo of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Rep. Min received his PhD in nuclear physics from Kyushu University in Japan. She worked as a researcher at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). As of now, she is heading up the National Assembly Science Technology-ICT Diplomacy Forum.
Q: How significant is it for S. Korea to host the OECD meeting for science and technology
A: S. Korea’s hosting of this forum, which had been initiated by the US and European nations, means that our international standing in science and technology has been appreciably enhanced.
At the request of host nation S. Korea, non-OECD member nations, i.e. ASEAN member countries, will participate in the OECD meeting for science and technology for the first time. Hence S. Korea is set to play a pivotal role in advancing science and technology in Asia.
The OECD meeting for science and technology has been held since the foundation of the OECD in 1963. For the first time in the OECD’s 52-year history, the OECD meeting for science and technology will be held outside Paris, where the OECD headquarters is based. Such an unprecedented decision is viewed as a salute to the fact that S. Korea emerged as one of the world’s economic and IT powerhouses in a short period time after its liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
By hosting this forum, we can ramp up our science diplomacy. Above all, decisions on where the world’s science and technology policy should be headed over the next decade will be made at the forum. Non-OECD members, i.e. ASEAN member nations, will also participate in this forum, which will end with the adoption of ‘Daejeon Declaration.’
Q: We’ve heard that a wide range of issues will be tabled at the forum.
Forum participants will deliberate on relations among science, technology, innovation, economic growth and manufacturing innovation and will suggest solutions to global challenges facing humanity, such as health and medical treatment, population aging and climate change.
A new future, based on the convergence of science and art, will also be envisioned; in-depth discussions will take place to explore ways for the sustainable development of the world through science, technology and innovation.
Parallel Session 2: “Science and Technology for Global Cohesion” (Oct. 19) will shed light on the global science and technology sector’s new cooperation movement, “appropriate technology.” Global trends and Korean examples of appropriate technology will be introduced.
Innopolis Tech-Fair (DCC) will be held on the sidelines of the forum to display uncommercialized but promising technologies and products and flaunt S. Korea’s science and technology.
Q: INNOPOLIS Foundation has been spearheading advances in science and technology and innovation in this nation. You hail from Daejeon. What impact do you think this OECD forum will bring to INNOPOLIS Foundation
Daejeon, home to INNOPOLIS Foundation, is S. Korea’s answer to the US’s Silicon Valley. INNOPOLIS Foundation houses nearly 70 world-renowned research institutions, universities and companies.
In particular, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) beat the US’s MIT and NASA to top ipIQ's Innovation Anchor Scorecard for two consecutive years (2012, 2013).
INNOPOLIS Foundation has made great achievements, including test-fires of KSR-III (a liquid-propellant sounding rocket), the commercialization of the world’s first CDMA technology, etc.
Therefore, Daejeon is a perfect venue for the OECD meeting for science and technology and a place where a new wave of value creation can take place.
