Shillong, May 18: The Republic of Korea Ambassador to India Chang Jae-bok on Wednesday visited the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and interacted with the faculty and students.
Chang Jae-bok in his speech comprehensively dealt with history of Indo-Korea relationship and exhorted NEHU students in taking it forward in a variety of field of mutual interest.
He mentioned that around 700 Korean Companies are working in India and these companies have established deeper economic tie ups with India in every way.
He also alluded to spread of K Pop and Kimchi in Northeast India and joined the chorus of students in naming many popular characters of various OTT Korean dramas that have gone viral in India.
As the Korean visitors found the atmosphere of NEHU very alluring and enticing, the Ambassador spoke at length on various issues like academic collaboration and economic tie ups through various companies.
In the interaction with students, on a specific question of a NEHU student who runs a start up company and who wanted to extend it to Korea,
The Ambassador referred to Kolkata trade office of Republic of Korea which can provide guidance to such a welcome idea.
In yet another response, the Korean side took great interest in the demand for increasing more scholarships for Indian students, to which the Ambassador sounded positive by saying that “we understand that India has a huge population.â€
The students exhorted the Ambassador for his positive mindset.
On assisting in opening up Korean Learning Centre at NEHU, the Ambassador referred the matter to Korean Cultural centre at New Delhi, which NEHU would pursue in the right manner.
Meanwhile, NEHU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. P. S. Shukla, mentioned the need for opening up wide ranging collaborations between Korean Universities and NEHU.
Prof. Shukla cited NEHU’s contributions in cutting edge areas of Bio-Sciences, Bio-Informatics, Physical Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences and drew attention of Republic of Korea to unique local and indigenous knowledge systems, cultural and bio resources diversities as well as instant chemistry between North-eastern culture and Korean culture.
The Vice-Chancellor implored for the need to build up strong University to University connections.
He suggested that NEHU in its present attempt to internationalize higher education is looking up to support and facilitation from Republic of Korean through its Embassy at New Delhi to strike up MoUs in cutting edge areas.
Shukla said that one such cutting edge area is identification, categorization and systematization of local pool of knowledge systems for the purpose of advancing global science and technology.
He explained the whole process as cultural and educational without which local and global cannot be pulled together.
