1. The 19th meeting of the Republic of Korea-China Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation will take place in Jeju on December 8 and 9.

◦ The ROK and Chinese delegations to the meeting will be led respectively by Director-General for Global Economic Affairs Lee Seong-ho of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation Li Haisheng of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

2. In their Joint Committee meeting, the two sides will introduce to each other their respective environment policies and seek ways to work together in areas of mutual concern, including air pollution, yellow dust, maritime affairs and water resources. They will also discuss ways to step up global environmental cooperation such as through the seventh World Water Forum set to take place in the ROK on April 12-17, 2015, and on biodiversity; as well as ways to bolster environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia, including through such a framework as the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC).

◦ In particular, the two countries will review the progress in the implementation of the cooperation projects on air pollution and environmental industry, which the leaders of the two countries agreed to conduct at their summit talks during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the ROK in July.

3. The ROK-China Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation, held in the two countries on an annual and rotational basis pursuant to the bilateral Agreement on Environmental Cooperation concluded in 1993, has been implementing cooperation projects on a wide range of environmental issues, including research on air and marine pollution. 


                Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation