1. The Republic of Korea and Ireland held the fifth meeting of their Joint Economic Committee in Seoul on December 4. In the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to promote bilateral economic cooperation in trade, investment, science, technology and education. In addition, the ROK side asked the Irish government to cooperate in expanding the quota of the participants in the bilateral Working Holiday program.

2. Ireland, after exiting its EU-IMF program of financial support in December 2013, has since been seeing a solid economic recovery, as demonstrated by its expected growth rate of 4.6% this year, the highest among all the European countries. The ROK-Ireland meeting held amid this trend served as an opportunity for in-depth discussions on ways to boost bilateral economic cooperation.

3. In particular, in a bid to step up cooperation in investment with Ireland, which is assessed to have an outstanding environment for foreign investment, the two sides explored potential areas of cooperation between the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland. They agreed to seek cooperation between the two agencies, such as through dispatches of trade delegations and participation in each other’s trade fairs.

4. The ROK side asked the Irish government to take interest and participate actively in its “English Program in Korea (EPIK)” and “Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK),” the ROK government’s programs designed to recruit and use high quality native-speaking English-language teachers.

5. The ROK-Ireland Working Holiday program is drawing keen interest of Korean youth, as demonstrated by the fact that the quota of 400 is completely filled every year. Under the circumstances, the ROK side asked the Irish government to increase the quota and extend the length of stay for travel and language studies.

6. The ROK and the Irish delegations to the Joint Economic Committee meeting were led respectively by Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Ahn Chong-ghee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director-General of the Trade and Promotion Division Colm O'Floinn of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

◦ The ROK side was composed of relevant officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and KOTRA. The Irish delegation included officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Enterprise Ireland and the IDA Ireland.

7. The next, the sixth, meeting of the ROK-Ireland Joint Economic Committee will take place in Dublin, Ireland, in 2016. 


                         Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation