Elon Musk "One of the Top Priority Investment Destinations in Korea"
President Yoon Requests Musk for Cooperation Between SpaceX and Korean Space Industry Companies
[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 23rd, President Yoon Suk-yeol explained the Korean automotive ecosystem and investment conditions to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and requested investment in Korea.
At 10 a.m. that day, President Yoon held a video meeting with CEO Musk and spoke about Tesla's plan to build the 'Gigafactory,' a complete electric vehicle production base in Asia, according to the presidential office.
First, President Yoon highly praised Tesla, which is pioneering the electric vehicle era, and SpaceX, which succeeded in the world's first orbital launch vehicle reuse. He also commended CEO Musk for his efforts leading these innovations and expressed hope for continued successful innovation.
Regarding the Gigafactory construction, CEO Musk responded, "We are considering Korea as one of the top priority investment candidates and will make a decision after comprehensively reviewing the workforce, technology level, and production environment of Asian candidate countries."
He added, "Tesla currently uses many excellent Korean parts in fields such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence (AI)" and expressed a strong willingness to actively invest in Korea's electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
In particular, he emphasized that cooperation in the supply chain with Korean companies will be greatly expanded, expecting that the amount of parts purchased from Korean companies will exceed approximately 10 billion dollars (about 13 trillion won) in 2023.
President Yoon also requested cooperation between Korean space industry companies and SpaceX. Referring to the Korean launch vehicle Nuriho, which successfully launched with indigenous technology in June this year, President Yoon introduced, "Korea is making multifaceted efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the space industry by fostering space and aviation startups, training personnel, and promoting the establishment of the Korea Aerospace Agency to open a full-fledged space economy era."
He continued, "If there are unreasonable regulations that hinder global advanced innovative companies' investment in Korea, we plan to reform them to comply with global standards," reiterating his request for investment.
The presidential office explained the background of this meeting, stating, "President Yoon exchanged opinions with CEO Musk on global technological innovation and specifically discussed investment cooperation plans related to electric vehicle production in Korea."
President Yoon was scheduled to meet CEO Musk face-to-face during the B20 Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, on the 14th, but the meeting was changed to a video conference due to Musk's canceled business trip.
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