On 23 October 2022, at the Korean Cultural Centre in Paris, the Mayor of Seoul, Mr Se-Hoon OH, and the President of Cosmetic Valley, Mr Marc-Antoine Jamet, signed a strategic partnership agreement between the French competitiveness cluster, the national coordinator of the cosmetics industry, and the government of the Seoul metropolis.
This agreement will strengthen bilateral research and training collaborations between French and Korean universities, support the innovation of start-ups and SMEs in both countries and develop the attractiveness of each of their respective territories for manufacturers in the sector.
It is the direct result of the mission that the competitiveness cluster carried out last May in South Korea with the support of the European Commission as part of the “Global Cosmetics Cluster Europe” project. Its objective is to strengthen the French presence on a promising market of nearly 6 billion euros.
This rapprochement comes at a time when the City of Seoul, buoyed by the “K-Beauty” wave which has enabled the country of the Morning Calm to become the world’s 4th largest cosmetics exporter in just a few years, and to become a new competitor for French manufacturers, intends to become one of the world’s beauty capitals, and has invested $168 million in the creation, in 2023, of a district dedicated to fashion and beauty.
“For 30 years, Cosmetic Valley has been developing a strategy to support the internationalisation of our cosmetics industry, and in particular its many SMEs. In a context of ever increasing international competition, we are betting …
