SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea will increase its trade volume with the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) in the years ahead, according to Lee Hyuk, secretary general of the ASEAN Korea Centre (AKC).
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in his office here, Lee cited the good relations between ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (RoK) during the past 30 years.
Lee was formerly the ambassador of South Korea to the Philippines. Ambassador Han Dong-Man is currently the envoy of South Korea to the Philippines.
Lee said the ASEAN is the second largest trading reaching USD160 billion in 2018 and the third largest investment partner totaling USD6.1 billion during the same period.
“ASEAN and Korea have become key partners of economic cooperation,” Lee said, adding that “ASEAN is the most popular destinations for Koreans with 8.9 million visitors in 2018.
The AKC will strive to continue playing a pivotal role in building a lasting and genuine partnership between the two sides,” Lee said.
“In line with this, AKC will carry out a series of programs under the collective theme of ‘Connecting People, (and) Sharing Prosperity,’”’ he pointed out.
Lee said the AKC will focus on the following:
- Make efforts towards building a closer community between ASEAN and Korea for a stronger and prosperous partnership.
- Strengthen cooperation for innovation and creativity-driven growth with AKC supporting the empowerment of micro-small-and-medium sized enterprises with Korea helping embrace digital technologies as a new growth engine in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
- AKC will promote activities that connect the hearts and minds of people of ASEAN and Korea to foster greater cultural exchanges and strategic tourism development of ASEAN and Korea.
Lee also said the “AKC will serve as a networking hub where the youth, scholars, media and the general public of ASEAN and Korea can interact with one another through diverse communication medium…to foster friendship and raise mutual understanding.”
The AKC will exert efforts to increase trade volume, accelerate investment, invigorate tourism, and enrich cultural and people-to-people exchanges, Lee said.
He also said 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of ASEAN and ROK dialogue relations, and the 10th anniversary of ASEAN and AKC, the only intergovernmental organization that is mandated to promote economic and socio-cultural cooperation between ASEAN and Korea.
The ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Loa, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. (PNA)
