By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo

Governor Kim Kwan-young of Jeollabuk-do held a meeting with Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva J. Tor and other embassy officials on April 2 to discuss international cooperation in areas such as Saemangeum development, joint ventures, and traditional cultural exchanges. 

The official meeting took place as Ambassador Akiva Tor was invited as a special speaker at the 5th anniversary of the opening of Jeonbuk Kukdong Broadcasting.

During the meeting, Kim and Akiva Tor shared their entrepreneurship policies and proposed various economic cooperation initiatives, including technology transfer and joint ventures with promising Israeli startups and the establishment of manufacturing facilities in Saemangeum.

Governor Kim participated in the Korea-Israel Conference in May last year and met with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and has been paying special attention to practical exchanges to share Saemangeum's investment environment and ways to cooperate with Israel, a leading international entrepreneurship country. 

In particular, while actively promoting future strategic industries such as secondary batteries, bio, and defense, the provincial government is also working to create an entrepreneurship ecosystem, noting that Tel Aviv, Israel, ranked fifth as a global startup city in the U.S. Startup Genome report in 2023, after Silicon Valley, New York, London, and Los Angeles, and is seeking ways to collaborate. 

"I hope to create a way for Jeonbuk and Israel's innovation capabilities to collaborate, including the secondary battery industry, fostering the bio industry by attracting a specialized bio complex, and specializing in the defense industry," Kim said during the meeting, adding, "I ask for the ambassador's special attention so that practical exchanges in various fields such as economy and technology can take place." 

Ambassador Akiva Tor, who was appointed ambassador to Korea in November 2020, is a leading expert on Israeli Jewish thought and is a regular guest on Far Eastern Broadcasting Radio's "Bible Study" series every Saturday morning.