North-East Asia

The North-East Asia Region consists of two offices in China, in Beijing and Shanghai, an office in Tokyo, Japan, and an office in Seoul, South Korea.

Idun Christie is responsible for this region.

Formal cooperation across borders

Cooperation with the Research Council of Norway with regard to China and Japan continued in 2006 as an important activity for Innovation Norway’s representation. Norway’s bilateral research agreements with China and Japan create a foundation for a goal-oriented focus on increasing both academic and industrial research and technology cooperation with globally leading environments in these two countries.
The Research Council of Norway, which has the operative responsibility for following up this agreement, co-financed the research and technology delegates at Innovation Norway’s offices in Beijing and Tokyo as part of their efforts to facilitate this research work in 2005 as well.

Cooperation with the Research Council of Norway

Such cooperation enables Innovation Norway’s offices abroad to establish a good operational relationship with the Research Council of Norway as a public support player while providing the Research Council of Norway with a valuable international presence and experience. So far this work has provided a solid platform for the development of cooperation in areas that are important to the three countries: energy/environmental technology, IT and health technology, materials/nanotechnology, and biotechnology and marine technology.

Cooperation within the NEEC

Cooperation within the Norwegian Energy and Environment Consortium (NEEC) also involves cooperation between Innovation Norway’s offices in China and Japan. A local project manager has been employed at the Beijing office to work full-time with the NEEC project. An energy and environmental advisor has been employed at the Tokyo office and spends around a third of his time on the NEEC. In addition, the Beijing office has various employees who are involved in NEEC work through their areas of responsibility, including R&D, financing and market knowledge.

Even though Korea is not mentioned in the context of the NEEC, the environment and energy is also high on the agenda there, and it is one of several prioritised market areas for Innovation Norway in Seoul.