Alex Jensen: It is Wednesday, December 8^th, you’re listening to Koreabizcast with the KBLA. I’m your host, Alex Jensen. And when you hear about the French city of Grenoble perhaps your mind wanders to its reputation as a base camp for alpine leisure after all, it has been dubbed the capital of the Alps. But that’s not all it’s known for. It’s also holding the title of European Green Capital for 2022. Taking over from Lahti in Finland. Find out what that means not just for the city and for France but also for us here in Korea too. And if you want to get in touch on anything inquire about sponsorship or sharing your story, just email info@kbla.net.

Alex Jensen: Well then, on to the business of bridging Seoul and Grenoble then as we can welcome Veronique Pequignat, the Director of International actions at investing Grenoble Alps, thank you very much for taking the time lunchtime for you, at the time of us recording this in the evening in Seoul and it’s a reminder of just how far we are apart. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your lunch hour.

Veronique Pequignat: You’re welcome.

Alex Jensen: And, also let me say hello to KBLA Co-chair, my colleague Hailey Yang who as it happens is also in charge of the Korea side of this for investing Grenoble Alps. Thank you also for joining me out of your evening.

Hailey Yang: Hi, Alex, thanks for having me and I’m glad to share my experience with Veronique during this episode.

Alex Jensen: So Veronique, I was saying during the introduction that like when you think of Grenoble, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is something related to the Alps or Alpine leisure, and that is for most people winter sports, but for some also the beauty of summer in the Alps. For our conversation today though, there’s this whole additional factor of European Green Capital, and other aspects like obviously investing in the region beyond just paying for a holiday. Can you give us an introduction into the work that you do and how you got involved in that?

Veronique Pequignat: Yes, of course, Alex. So just to, it’s true that when you think about Grenoble, especially from the, you know, the other side of the ocean, lots of people don’t really know where that is, first of all, and some may remember the 1968 Olympic Games, and think about mountains. But it is not only about that. So, Grenoble is a small city as compared to big Asian cities, we have about 700,000 inhabitants for the greater Grenoble area. But it’s pretty famous in, especially in Europe for being highly innovative, and having a lot of research, academia, and startups as well. And so, my team, which is a small team is in charge of reaching out to other countries to other places in the world and letting them know how great a place it is to actually make business to invest to come around and set up any kind of economic activities. And so, we do this with having people like Hailey, representing us in different parts of the world, we have somebody representing us in the US, we have someone in Korea, Hailey, we have also someone in Taiwan and someone in Switzerland as well. And the idea is really to let people know what are the opportunities there, and how it could be very important for them to develop their business, the activities, the research from based in Grenoble.

Alex Jensen: So, I was going to ask actually, Hailey from your side how you got involved as well. And how you learned more about Grenoble beyond the Alpine tradition.

Hailey Yang: Yeah, many people are really surprised when they visit Grenoble because the difference is they cannot feel it, like it only from the wordings. So, I’m working for the Investing Grenoble Alps to develop its international economic promotion in Korea as Veronique already explain, in particular to carry out several actions for investing for Grenoble Alps. So first, locally present a team of the attractiveness of promotion department around the theme of investing Grenoble Alps. And second, we develop international economic promotion actions in order to strengthen the influence and attractiveness of the global ecosystem. And third, we organize the visibility and prospecting actions at trade fairs and conferences in connection areas of excellence of the Grenoble Alps. And last, we also develop economic collaborations with a friendship tower and the Korean startup ecosystem and any action to attract the Korean investors and companies to the territory.

Alex Jensen: Veronique, what was it about Korea in particular that interested you? I know that you’ve already mentioned there are several other locations where you have representatives, but is there something in particular that draws your hope for a bridge between this part of the world and yours?

Veronique Pequignat: Yes, actually there are, because Grenoble is actually known in France and even in Europe as one of the Silicon Valley’s and silicon as in the literal sense of the world because we really are the top place in France for semiconductors and microelectronics, we have about 30% of the job counts in this sector in France. So of course, you know, knowing the business in Korea and the economic sector in Korea that make sense, of course. And we started to first of all, I would say the first of all the main interest was in the United States because we have a lot of American investors. But then, quite a few years ago, we started to really reach out to Asia and to see you know, which places which countries would be best fitted. So that’s why we looked, of course, into Taiwan because of all of the semiconductor industry there, but also into Korea. And we’ve had actually quite a number of investors and I’ve, but I have to say that one of the facts that actually triggered the interest of Korean investors in Grenoble was also the fact that Naver Labs bought over a team formerly by Xerox Research Center and made it their European Research Center in artificial intelligence. And that’s really kind of brought the spotlight from the Korean TV, Korean projectors in onto Grenoble. And also, that just the main note also that we had really in very unusual network and ecosystem of startups and deep tech startups, I have to say, so that’s one of the reasons why it really makes a lot of sense to have a lot of connections between the Korean ecosystem and the and the ecosystem in the Alps.

Alex Jensen: And for you, Hailey, the connection with the Korean government and the ecosystem that we’ve been referring to here, how has that been and how has it been like for you to make those connections?

Hailey Yang: Yeah, so first one to two years. For me, it was the big challenge because compared to Silicon Valley and other United States regions, Grenoble was a quite the new place for the Korean government and also at the same time the companies, but thanks ton you know, the Naver Labs and also, we worked for a lot of the marketing things during and now the Korean government knows the if the value and uniqueness of the as the innovative city. So, we connected this effort, governmental like, Daejeon and Miryang which is in Gyeongsangnam-do. And also, we had this delegation with the startup because in Grenoble, we have the event accord of Venture5i. And as Veronique mention in Grenoble, we have the deep tech basic a lot of the startups, so I brought the Korean startups to participate in the Venture5i event as the first Asian startup and also with Korean government for the Daejeon. The Daejeon is more like is similar because it’s also the sciences city. So, we connected the National Nano Fab Center and also the Daejeon delegates with a lot of the sensor and nano based companies. And Gyeongsangnam-do Miryang city. They have the Global Nano Convergence Center. So, they wanted to study about the kinds of the benchmark of the Grenoble ecosystem. So based on the CEA-Leti and MINATEC, Grenoble have the great ecosystem for the micro and nano eco, micro nano industry. So, we with Gyeongsangnam-do Miryang city and also the Gyeongnam Technopark, we visited several times to learn about the ecosystem industry.

Alex Jensen: This aspect though Hailey of approaching officials here or potential investors, can you talk us through that process a little bit more for others who might be interested from just about any angle? Because it might feel almost like you’re going in cold when you think when you’re talking about a place on the other side of the world?

Hailey Yang: Yeah, you know the, we, for my server, we had a lot of delegations or for other countries either and I don’t need to the United States for so like the Asian countries, Taiwan, Vietnam. Grenoble has the, it has a very, you know, uniqueness ecosystem. And so, as Veronique mentioned the, in some parts, we have a lot of similarities with the Korean cities. They have the mountains, and also it is the city of the Winter Olympics. So, we could find a lot of the similarities with the Korean cities. A very strength is kind of the innovative city. And also at the same time, it’s a very technology base it. So, we call printable as the European Silicon Valley now. So, it has a lot of the potentials and for the startups, and even for the investors. So, we also had a lot of great success stories for the Grenoble startups, investments with the Korean investors. So, I’m pretty sure we are going to have some more success stories in coming years.

Alex Jensen: Right on success stories, are there any that you’d particularly like to raise before we get on to this Green Capital business?

Veronique Pequignat: Yeah, we don’t have many I mean, it’s just not a high number yet. But we can see the trend. And one other story I’m allowed to talk about, because you know, sometimes when you’re talking about investors taking you know, some shares into innovative startups, it might be tricky. But I can talk about this one, for example, Hyundai Motors, actually invested into one of our deep tech startups, which is called Aryballe Technology which is in fact an artificial nose. And so, they kept on investing in this, you know, during two rounds. And actually, one of the one person from Hyundai Motors is actually now a member of the board of the French Tech in Seoul, so that just, you know, another bridge that we have. And then it’s just really the word of mouth, basically. So, once you know, these kinds of things happen, it is just more known. And so that’s one success story we can talk about. And then we have another also equipment supplier which is called SEMI ICs which decided also to have its support and research center in Grenoble as well, even during the pandemic, we knew had these success stories, so which is definitely a good sign.

Alex Jensen: And then on to this aspect of European Green Capital which, I mean, I found out it was just for 2022. And that before it had been hosted by Finland, can you first of all, Veronique, just tell us more about what that is? And then we can better understand what it exactly means for Grenoble?

Veronique Pequignat: Yes, sir. So, it’s European process and basically, every year you have a European city which applies and tries to be elected as European Green Capital. So, Grenoble won this distinction for the year 2022 because of various reasons, of course, as I said, we are a city that just completely surrounded by mountains. So that means, you know, we’ve been really we call ourselves the Sentinel to the ops. And you can say that basically the ops and all mountains around the world are like, you know, sentinels what’s happening as regards to climate change and global warming. So, the citizens and the elected representatives have always been very motivated and very and have really always paid a lot of attention to what’s happening as far as climate and climate change. And so, they try to and especially since we are surrounded by mountains, we’re very vulnerable to such things, you know, as air pollution, global warming, and things like this. So, they really, they’ve set up very early on climate plans, air quality plans, they’ve developed the transport public transportation as well. They went, they were one of the first city to apply very low speed limit. Just to give you some examples, we are the top city for bicycle commuting as well. And we saw, there’s just a lot of initiatives that just made the European Commission choose Grenoble. And then for that the year is the idea to really, really make this as a I would say, not a red thread, but they green threads, for any kind of events or actions take on some challenges as well. So that could be either by companies but also by organizations, and of course by citizens because that’s really the main chain is to really try and involve as many citizens as possible in these kinds of challenges which might involve mobility, air quality, water, and even all the events that are going to take place throughout the year, we’ll try to really take on some green challenge in order to really lower the carbon footprint.

Alex Jensen: Hailey, when you can introduce Grenoble as this European Green Capital for 2022. Is that going to really help in the coming months talking to people over here in Korea?

Hailey Yang: Yeah, truly for the Korean companies even for myself for the European Green Capital is the concept is quite new for us. And also, the many of us has a different kind of definition to understand about the concept. But so far, also in Korea even though I attended the event according to RETECH which is for the recycling and environmental event in Korea and many of the Korean companies and also government, we are really focused on the carbon free and also the many kinds of the we are also interested in the climate change issues. So, the government has different kinds of the policy to keep the, you know, nature. So, I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of opportunities to connect with the Grenoble with the Korean service even the Jeju island, they are preparing the delegation during the early next year. So, it is kind of the I think, during the next year, and also the coming years, this concept and this topic is very important, not only in Korea and France but also in other counties. So, I think it’s great opportunity to connect the two different countries and at the same time the companies not only forward the technology like micro and nano but also like afford energy levels and also the environment, chemical things.

Alex Jensen: Great. Well, good luck with that, Hailey, being able to harness this reputation. Veronique, just to finish with this, Is there anything going forward that you’d like to highlight for us that we perhaps haven’t mentioned so far?

Veronique Pequignat: I think we just rush in some of the important, of course, some of the important issues. I would I think there’s one other issue, you know, when you were talking about European Green Capital, it’s also about people and about including in diversity, and one of the key issues around the world nowadays also to be able to have talents, and to make sure that young people, you know, get the right education and find, you know, the really the their dream jobs or whatever it is. So, and I think that’s one thing we share also. So that’s one very important issue that every ecosystem around the world has to work about. Because what we need nowadays is really having your talents having a talented people who are really willing to make a difference into our world.

Alex Jensen: Thank you very much to you as well. Then Veronique Pequignat, I wish you all the best, and hope to hear much more about Grenoble as well as perhaps a visit if I may still for pursuits like skiing. It’s been an absolute pleasure to connect with you.

Veronique Pequignat: Thank you. I’m looking forward to welcoming you, hopefully.

Alex Jensen: Yeah, well, I hope so. And Hailey Yang, thank you again. I’ll catch up with you probably even sooner.

Hailey Yang: Sure. Thank you very much.

Alex Jensen: And I’d just like to say to anyone else who’s interested in connecting perhaps from another part of the world that they want to introduce a Seoul or maybe you’ve got an individual story that you want to share. I gave the email address earlier. Let me remind you, info@kbla.net. You also find it through LinkedIn by searching KBLA. See you again tomorrow.