Good morning everyone.

Thank you for joining our CEO Roundtable at the Department of Commerce. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our distinguished guests from Korea – President Moon, Minister Moon, and the entire Korean Government delegation, it’s an honor to have you with us.

I’d also like to thank the CEOs who have joined us here today – in person and virtually. I’m grateful for your participation.

The United States and Korea share a long history of close friendship and deep commercial ties.

Korea is our 6^th largest trading partner. In 2019, Korean firms invested over $60 billion dollars in the United States. And in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea shipped us personal protective equipment that helped save lives.

In turn, American manufacturers are working closely with the Biden Administration to get COVID vaccines to Korea. And the United States has been Korea’s second-largest source of foreign direct investment for over a decade. Clearly, the importance of this bilateral relationship, for both nations, cannot be overstated. 

As we recover from the pandemic, our countries will benefit from deepening that collaboration, particularly in sectors that are critical to the future of our economies. Those sectors include:

1. healthcare companies that are producing vaccines;
2. semiconductor supply chain companies; and  
3. electric vehicle battery companies.

That’s why today we’ve brought together some of the world’s most innovative CEOs and leaders from those sectors. Their companies are at the forefront of global technology, and their historic investments of billions of dollars have helped create good-paying jobs in both countries.

Yesterday I met with three dozen companies in the semiconductor supply chain, including Qualcomm and Samsung. Building on those conversations, I look forward to a productive discussion today on how we can strengthen our partnership even more going forward.

Before I introduce the executives, I’ll introduce Minister Moon who will also share some remarks.  Mr. Minister, I’ll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

It’s my honor to introduce President Moon Jae-In. Mr. President, welcome to the Department of Commerce.

I’ll turn it over now to each of our distinguished executives to introduce themselves and say a few words. First, from the Korean side, we have,

• SK Group Chairman Chey
• Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim
• LG Energy Solution CEO Kim
• Samsung Biologics CEO Rim
• SK Bioscience CEO Ahn
• Hyundai President Kong

Thank you and now from the U.S. side,

• Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Mollenkopf
• DuPont Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Breen
• Ampere Computing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Janes
• Novavax President and Chief Executive Officer Erick
• GM President of International Operations Kiefer