Finnish minister visits Seoul to discuss technology cooperation with S. Korea

The Finnish minister of transport and communication visited Seoul to expand technological exchanges with South Korea in the fields of 6G, quantum computing and space, the Finnish Embassy in Seoul said Tuesday.

Minister Timo Harakka, addressing the previous cooperation between the two countries on 5G network development at a roundtable held under the theme of "Building Digital Capability," said Finland has already taken steps toward 6G.

The minister joined discussions with representatives of leading information and communications technology companies, and research organizations, said Business Finland, a state-run organization for innovation funding and trade, travel and investment promotion, which hosted the event. Lee Jong-ho, the Korean minister of science and ICT, also gave a keynote speech.

Touting Korea and Finland as two global ICT powerhouses, Kim Young-sim, a senior adviser at Business Finland, said she hoped the roundtable would strengthen Korea’s digital capabilities, allow ICT to create new partnerships and expand the cooperative relationship.

Matti Latva-aho of University of Oulu introduced the 6G Flagship Ecosystem, a collaborative network of researchers, IT enterprises and businesses that capitalize on the prospects of new wireless technology.

Latva-aho, director of 6G Flagship, said the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) of Korea is one of the first international collaborators for 6G Flagship, stretching back to 2018 when the University of Oulu held a joint 5G demonstration based on test networks.

6G Flagship is the world's first large-scale 6G research program, operated by the University of Oulu.

A new collaborative research project to develop advanced 6G system architecture has been launched by the Finnish university and ETRI.

Funded by Business Finland and the Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea, the project kicked off its three-year operation last month.

"With this latest project, collaboration between the University of Oulu and ETRI would be boosted even further with ambitious goals on 6G network architectures," stressed Latva-aho.