Seoul, San Francisco Mayors Pledge to Strengthen Ties

October 23, 2013

In South Korea, the mayor of Seoul has met with his counterpart from San Francisco to strengthen sister city relations, and discuss encouraging Internet-based business.

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon affirmed nearly four decades of sister-city relations with pledges to strengthen economic, cultural and education exchanges.

Mayor Park praised San Francisco's reputation for innovative business and said he hoped its Korean-American community could act as a bridge across the Pacific.

“Signing this MOU between the San Francisco and Seoul city it may be a good opportunity for Korean and Seoul young venture-ists [venture capitalists] to have, you know, more markets and chances to go into the global market,” he said.

“I understand already that you have over 745,000 followers on Twitter," replied San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee. "I could take you to the Twitter headquarters. Perhaps I could have that many followers.”

Speaking before Korean officials and businessmen, Mayor Lee said he hoped American technology companies could work with Koreans to create new markets and jobs.

“Well, we have a very strong presence of good start-ups like Airbnb and Uber in San Francisco and I know that they have a presence here in Seoul and they're making connections along with companies like Linked-In and some of the other companies that are part of the delegation," he said.