1. The Foreign Ministry and the Arctic Economic Council (AEC) Secretariat have agreed to co-host the first Republic of Korea-AEC cooperation seminar in Seoul on December 11, 2017, in conjunction with the “Arctic Partnership Week” event in the same month.

° The AEC, an Arctic business forum composed of private entrepreneurs of Arctic countries, was founded in January 2014 with the support of the Arctic Council.

* The “Arctic Partnership Week” event, an international event on Arctic matters hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on an annual basis since 2016, consists of seminars, forums and exhibitions on the Arctic-related science, policies and industry.

2. The forthcoming seminar tentatively themed “maritime transport in the Arctic region” will cover in depth ways to use northeastern routes as well as ways for the private sector to pursue economic cooperation in the Arctic and other northern regions, which are emerging as a new economic frontier.

° The event will bring together a number of Arctic business experts from the AEC, including its Vice Chair Róbert Guðfinnsson, Chair Mikko Niini of its Maritime Transportation Working Group, and members of its Maritime Transportation and Telecommunications Infrastructure Working Groups.

※ Chair A. Harkonen of the Arctic Council’s Senior Arctic Officials (SAOs) will also visit the ROK to attend the seminar.

3. The upcoming ROK-AEC cooperation seminar, the first AEC event to come in a non-Arctic country, is expected to serve as an opportunity to seek ways to support bids of Korean companies to join the AEC and to work with the organization. As such, it will likely contribute greatly to Korean companies’ bids to build presence in the Arctic region and to the country’s efforts to broaden the scope of its activities in the region.


* unofficial translation