King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was accompanied by a business delegation of over 100 people during his recent state visit to Korea. The governments, public institutions and corporations of the two countries signed numerous memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to improve and develop bilateral cooperation.

The Dutch business delegation attended the Creative Economy and Innovation Seminar organized by the Netherlands at the Plaza Hotel in Seoul on November 5. Korean and Dutch participants discussed ways in which innovation could help develop the creative industries. Minister of Science, ICT & Future Planning Choi Yanghee and Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp watched the signing of many MOUs between public institutions and corporations of the two nations.



The Netherlands Inspection Service for Horticulture, the Naktuinbouw, and the Korea Seed and Variety Service signed an MOU to cooperate on the seeds industry, which is considered a major basic industry of the future. Shin Hyun-kwan, director general of the Korea Seed and Variety Service, spoke about the seed industry.



What is the Naktuinbouw organization that signed the MOU with the Korea Seed and Variety Service?

- The Naktuinbouw is the Dutch version of the Korea Seed and Variety Service. The Netherlands has an advanced agricultural industry and the Naktuinbouw preserves seeds and conducts cultivation reviews on new varieties across the world, including Europe, whose patent applications are filed. It reviews over 1,700 new breeds every year.

The key missions of the Naktuinbouw are to: preserve plant variety in order to protect seed developers; conduct tests on germination, purity, authenticity and health condition of breeds; carry out training for examining and protecting breeds; and, conduct research into related subjects.

What is the MOU about?

- There are three areas in which we are going to cooperate: new plant breeds, breed examination, and producing trophosomes and certifying their quality.

More specifically, we will cooperate on protecting new plant varieties and developing technology for the certification of a breed's quality. We will also collaborate on the exchange of human resources and technology for breed quality certification and the production of fruits, including strawberries and trophosome saplings. Finally, we will run educational programs to protect new plant breeds in developing nations.



What would be the effects of the MOU?

- The Naktuinbouw has high quality certification and management systems for trophosomes and saplings. Korea has not established such a system, except for potato seeds. Japan hasn't either. With this MOU, Korea intends to introduce such systems to Korea. Korea and the Netherlands will cooperate on supporting seed protection activities and on educating related professionals in developing nations.

The Naktuinbouw already announced last year that it intends to participate in educational programs in the developing world. With this MOU, beginning in 2015 seed specialists from both nations will hold seminars together to raise awareness of seed protection systems and to study characteristics of new breeds.

What type of seed protection system does the Korea Seed and Variety Service and the Naktuinbouw use?

- The protection of a variety of seeds is similar to patents and is a new form of intellectual property. It is designed to protect the rights of the developers of new varieties and encourage new breed development. It is the basis of the seed industry and strengthens the competitiveness of the agricultural industry. Korea started a system of protecting some varieties in 1998 and has since joined the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). A total of 7,300 patents have been filed in Korea covering a range of seed varieties.





What are the Korea Seed and Variety Service's future plans?

- The Korea Seed and Variety Service conducts educational programs on seed protection laws and inspects related technology. Every year since 2007 it has invited professionals from Asian and African nations to come to Korea. Some 100 professionals from 30 nations have taken place in the program.

In order to further upgrade the educational program, we will begin sending our own specialists to those respective nations in 2015. According to the MOU with the Naktuinbouw, we will conduct a training course in Cambodia in the latter half of 2015.

By Jeon Han, Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Jeon Han
hanjeon@korea.kr