Inaugration speech
- September 22, 2017 -

Dear members of Korea Biomedicine Industry Association (KoBIA).

My name is Seok-hee Kang, the CEO of CJ Healthcare and I am newly appointed as the Chairman of KoBIA.

I am greatly honored and at the same time feel great sense of responsibility as I take the role of Chairman at KoBIA as the association has been forefront of Korea¡¯s biopharmaceutical industry, presenting policies, improving regulations and training talents for biological products. Mr. Jeong-jin Seo, the first chairmen of the board of directors, Mr. Tae-han Kim, the second chairmen of the board of directors, Mr. Myeong-hyeon Kim, the first chairman of the association and Mr. Kwang-soo Joo, CEO, for making dedicated efforts to develop our association to what it is today since the establishment in 2011. I¡¯d like to also thank members who have been always with us.

OECD predicts that the era of Bio Economy where bio technologies are converged with other technologies to bring about transformation in the economy will come by 2030. In addition, experts predict that global bio market starts to exceed the combined value of top three industries of semiconductor, automobile and chemical products three years from now. It is estimated that the bio market would reach 4.4 trillion dollar, which is 800 billion dollar more than combined market of top three industries in 2030. There is no doubt that bio industry has become a megatrend in name and in deed.

Under this circumstance, the new government was launched and roadmap for bio technology reflecting new philosophy of government administration was disclosed a few days ago. The roadmap is to increase the Korea¡¯s bio industry shares in the global market to 5% within 10 years, create 120,000 decent jobs and create business startup ecosystem to support 1,000 startups. We can see that the expectation of the new government is very high only with this plan.

Along with this change, the third executive board of KoBIA has three commitments for the development of biopharmaceutical industry and strengthening competitiveness of member companies.

First, the association will actively cooperate and communicate with all government ministries related to bio industry such as Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Ministry of Science and ICT. In addition, we will make efforts to attract innovative support for bio industry, especially biopharmaceutical industry, by cooperating with the National Assembly responsible for legislation and determination of government budget.

Second, we will take the lead in proposing and amending policies related to biopharmaceuticals for progress in the biopharmaceutical industry and improvement of member companies.
Third, we will listen more actively to difficulties faced by members so that improvement can be made on a real-time basis as soon as possible.

Along with our commitment, I¡¯d like to make some request to members. First, please make an effort to understand and engage in the government¡¯s policy of government administration so that you can contribute to creating decent jobs. Second, please utilize the association as a window of communication and domestic and overseas networking venue. Finally, I¡¯d like to ask you to provide proposal and opinion for the establishment of institutions preemptively and reasonable institutional improvement for biopharmaceutics. I hope that our association and member companies grow together through communication and cooperation.

Once again, I express my gratitude to members and distinguished guests for participating in this general assembly. I¡¯d like to ask you to point out shortcomings of the executive board and guide us. I want to conclude my speech with saying that I will be the Chairman who represents the association and biopharmaceutical industry and render great service to the industry.

Thank you.