The German Embassy here is facilitating a synergistic alliance between Germany’s science and technology know-how and South Korea’s manufacturing capacity, this time with a delegation of officials from the city of Dresden and the state of Saxony.

A delegation of local government officials led by Dresden Deputy Mayor Dirk Hilbert and Barbara Meyer, head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Traffic and Labor in Saxony, came here to promote commercial partnerships and drum up South Korean investment during a four-day trip from Oct. 30.

It was the first visit by officials from the state of Saxony but the trip marked the deputy mayor’s 14th trip in the last five years.

Meyer emphasized the developing alliance between German acumen in science and technology and South Korean commercial capacity and innovation with the example of a recent acquisition by electronics giant Samsung.

Samsung Electronics bought lighting specialist Novaled AG through affiliate Cheil Industries in August for $347 million to improve its capabilities in organic light-emitting diodes, which are mainly used in smartphones but are expected to be used increasingly in televisions and other screens.

Founded in 2001 by German research institute Fraunhofer Institute and the Technical University of Dresden, Novaled has around 130 employees.

Revenue in the OLED display market is poised to grow to $20 billion in the next three to five years from about $8 billion in 2012.

Hilbert visited so many times because of the burgeoning technology relationship between Germany and South Korea, particularly in fields such as bio-tech, nanotech, materials research and semiconductors, he said.

Another reason Hilbert comes to Seoul so frequently is personal. He said he met his wife, opera singer Min Su-yeon, when the Dresden Philharmonic performed in South Korea in 2008.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)