South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had a video call with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on November 23 and asked for investment.
Musk said he is considering Korea to be one of the top candidates for investment, the presidential office said in a press release. According to South Korea’s presidential office, President Yoon had a video call with Musk on the 23rd. President Yoon was originally scheduled to meet Musk last week after attending the G20 summit and the B20 Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, but had the video call instead as Musk’s visit was canceled.
At the video meeting, Musk explained his plan to build a Gigafactory to produce electric vehicles (EVs) in Asia. Yoon also explained Korea’s world-class automobile industry ecosystem and investment conditions, asking for investment.
Yoon praised the innovative achievements of Tesla, which is leading the EV market, and SpaceX, which succeeded in recycling the world’s first orbital rocket.
Referring to the domestically developed rocket ‘Nuri,’ which was launched in June this year, Yoon also asked for cooperation between SpaceX and Korean space companies.
In addition, he said he would reform unreasonable regulations that hindered investment to meet global standards.
In response, Musk said he is considering Korea to be one of the top candidates for investment. He said he would make the decision after reviewing investment conditions in other countries, including labor quality, technology level and production infrastructure, according to the presidential office.
He also expressed his willingness to invest in Korean EV charging infrastructure, saying, “Tesla is using lots of Korean parts in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence-related fields.” (ANI)
