AustCham Korea Hosts South Australian Premier for Business Breakfast

On Thursday, October 13, 2022, the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea hosted a Business Breakfast with the South Australian Premier, the Hon. Peter Malinauskas MP.

Premier Malinauskas visited Seoul on his first overseas trip as state leader since becoming Premier of South Australia this year in March. The Premier was joined by the South Australian Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon. Nicholas Champion, and the South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon. Tom Koutsantonis.

The Business Breakfast was hosted in a roundtable format, with 30 senior invitees from the Australia-Korea business community. This event provided the Premier with a chance to speak to industry leaders and gain valuable feedback on the Korean business environment. Another focus point was highlighting the significance of the Korea-South Australia relationship in realising global decarbonisation goals.

With regards to South Australia’s commitment to South Korea, the Premier stated, “I am hopeful that this investment in building relationships will pay big dividends for South Australia, and the world more broadly, in years to come.”

Following the Business Breakfast, leading Korean businesses in the hydrogen industry signed up to the South Australian Government’s hydrogen Statement of Co-operation.

Daelim E&C, SK Ecoplant, H2KOREA all signed the statement following a series of high-level meetings in Seoul on the same day. Daelim E&C is a Korean engineering and construction firm, SK Ecoplant is a global leader in hydrogen development and H2KOREA is a public-private body established with the aim of leading the global hydrogen industry by connecting government and the private sector.

It follows several leading Japanese and Australian businesses signing the agreement in Tokyo earlier this week, including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Marubeni, RE-Global and Australia’s Santos and H2U.

The Statement of Co-operation has the following key areas of focus:

• Growing a globally competitive hydrogen export sector through the development of a hydrogen export strategy and strategic partnerships. The export strategy will identify efficiencies in legislation, skills, inputs, and infrastructure required to establish a competitive export and value adding sector.

• Enabling the industries of the future by fostering advances in new technologies and new industrial opportunities through research partnerships and projects that accelerate the development of large scale industrial decarbonisation programs.

• Developing near-term domestic markets including mobility through the establishment of an ecosystem (production, distribution, and off-take applications) enabling a national hydrogen network of supply and applications.

AustCham Korea congratulates the South Australian delegation on a fruitful visit, and looks forward to hosting events together again in the future.