Startup Park for South Korean companies coming up in India
New Delhi. In its bid to help South Korean startups looking to venture into Indian market, the Korean Government is contemplating to set up Startup Park in India.
However, the proposed Startup Park would be set up in Bangalore or Gurugram, is yet to be decided.
“The idea is to build Startup Park or Complex where Korean companies can test their ideas on pilot project basis. It will be supported by Korean Government for small Korean companies to come to India as till now the investment has come to India from big companies like Hyundai, LG, Posco and others,” Yoo Chang-ho, the Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, Embassy of Republic of Korea told Asian Community News (ACN) Network recently.
Till now, only the large Korean multinational companies like Hyundai, LG, Samsung, Posco, Doosan, Kia Motors, Rotem and a handful of others have entered Indian market and set up their manufacturing facilities while the entry-level and small companies have largely stayed away from entering in India for various reasons.
When asked about the city in India where the proposed Startup Park is coming up, he said that it was too early to establish the city as the plan was still on the drawing board.
He indicated that it could be Bangalore as more and more Korean companies are going to that city to test their innovations and ideas. “We may think of other options too,” he added, though.
However, the South Korean minister for SMEs and Startups Hong Jong-haak who had accompanied President Moon Jae-in during his state visit to India in July last year, had announced that a Korean Startup Town would be set up in Gurugram by moving the New Delhi-based export incubator to this Haryana town.
According to business experts since the bilateral ties between the two countries have started to look up on diplomatic and political front especially after cross visits of state heads of both the countries during 2018-19, a large number of Korean companies have exhibited their keen interest to set up their shops in India.
If the bilateral trade volume between India and Korea grew at 70% between year 2009 and 2011 from 12.1 USD Billion to 20.5 USD Billion respectively, it went down to 15.8 USD Billion in year 2016.
Also, Korean FDI in Indian market grew at slow pace from 456 USD Million in the year 2011 to 514 USD Million in the year 2017.
For this, the Korean government officials blame the red-tapism prevalent in India.
“The problem in India is the multi-layer bureaucracy here as it has central and state governments.
If some company has an idea, it has to talk to the central and then state government separately and procedures take more than 5 years on an average. The SMEs have limited money and cannot afford to get their money stuck for such a long. However, large companies like Hyundai can afford to put one billion here and lock it for 5 years but not the small companies,” said Chang-ho suggesting that it was high time that the Indian government do something to about ease of doing business.
Last year, a Korean Government agency National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) had inaugurated its new India office in Bengaluru and announced a three-month boot camp called ‘Lounge10’ – a co-living and co-working facility for South Korean startups. It was also known as K-ICT Boot Camp. But it targeted to incubate ten startups only and help them understand the Indian market.
If you want to know more about Korean startup scene, log on to https://www.innovationiseverywhere.com/south-korea-startup-scene/ and http://www.techforkorea.com/
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