Fleur Pellerin, the Korean-born French minister overlooking small and mid-sized enterprises and the digital economy, on Monday stressed that Korea and France have much to benefit from a mutual relationship.

“In R&D and innovation, especially in areas such as biotechnology and the digital economy, there are many sectors we can cooperate in,” Pellerin said at a meeting with the French-Korean community here at Novotel Ambassadors Hotel.

She noted a growing interest in France about Korean language and culture, on which Korea can hope to capitalize.

“It is a key time in our economic partnership,” Pellerin said. “I know some of you believe France is a great destination for tourism, for its cafs, its lunches, its tradition and museums. But less so that it is one of the best places in the world to develop a business.”

France has almost twice as much foreign direct investment than Germany or Italy, and there are more than 20,000 foreign firms based in France, figures show. These include leading Korean brands such as STX, Samsung, AmorePacific and LG.

France’s determination to foster entrepreneurship helped fanned these investments, Pellerin said, stressing that a part of her job would be to remind everyone that “entrepreneur” is a French word.

In Korea, there are 250 French companies doing business. Among these enterprises, the small but powerful startups have huge appeal, Pellerin noted, owing to their ability to create jobs and lead innovation.

The Park Geun-hye government has been clear from the start that it would focus on the area of smaller companies, and Pellerin pointed out that the same can be said for the Francois Holland government in France.

Adding to the bilateral interest in forging closer ties is that next year will be the year France will encourage the French to visit Korea, while in 2016, it will be vice versa.

Another key element in Monday’s event was the memorandum of understanding that the French-Korean Chamber of Commerce on Monday signed with the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business on expanding their relationship.

“We signed today a very nice memorandum, so I hope we can encourage this kind of agreements,” said Pellerin.

By Kim Ji-hyun  (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)