1. The eighth Cooperation Forum between the Republic of Korea and Central Asia will take place on the ROK’s Jeju Island on April 22. The event will bring together some 150 people -- delegations from the ROK and five Central Asian countries led by the ROK’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yong and his Central Asian counterparts and comprised of leading figures and experts from the government and private sectors, such as industry and academia, respectively.

° The Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum is a multilateral dialogue mechanism between the ROK and five countries in Central Asia, -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, launched in 2007. The ROK government led its establishment to forge comprehensive cooperative relations between the ROK and the five countries.

2. The upcoming forum, themed “advancing ROK-Central Asia relations for shared prosperity and cooperation: happiness of the people, national development and the creation of the future,” will focus on specific ways to work together in the fields of public healthcare, agriculture, environment and forestry.

3. In the special session of the forum, the ROK side will announce a roadmap for cooperation with Central Asia designed to implement its Eurasia Initiative and strengthen its diplomacy with Central Asia. The participants will discuss the possible establishment of an ROK-Central Asia cooperation secretariat.

° With regard to substantive cooperation projects in the sectors of forestry, railroad and textile discussed at their seventh forum, the two sides will announce a plan for continuous and smooth implementation of the projects. The plan will call for following up on the outcome of the upcoming forum, reviewing and continuously monitoring the progress of the projects.

- The ROK-Central Asia cooperation project on railroad technology is expected to serve as significant groundwork for cooperation on railroad and others with Eurasia. Meanwhile, the research project on forest bio-diversity and the cooperation projects on textile technology, including a textile techno park, are expected to help related Korean companies expand their presence overseas.

4. Leading TV broadcasters and other media outlets from the five Central Asian countries have been invited to the forum. On the sidelines of the forum, the delegations from the Central Asian countries will make a tour of experimental forests run by the Korea Forest Service, public healthcare facilities and UNESCO Natural World Heritage sites, which will likely help enhance the Central Asian delegates’ understanding of the ROK.

5. On the sidelines of the forum, Vice Minister Cho will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the Central Asian countries to discuss ways to step up bilateral cooperation.

6. The forthcoming forum is expected to serve as an opportunity to lay tangible groundwork for the implementation of the Eurasian Initiative, one of the ROK government’s priority tasks, as well as an institutional foundation for a further increase in substantive cooperation in public healthcare, forestry, railroad, agriculture and environment. As such, it is anticipated to help create more jobs in the ROK and the Central Asian countries and boost exchanges and cooperation among their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and civilians.

° The upcoming forum carries great significance in that for the first time ever since its establishment in 2007, it will discuss the possible establishment of an ROK-Central Asia cooperation secretariat and seek ways to cooperate for the systematic implementation of the substantive cooperation projects in diverse fields sought out in the previous forums. 


                  Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation