1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with Secretary-General Angel Gurria of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on October 18 and exchanged views with him on ways for the Republic of Korea and the OECD to work more closely together, the OECD’s global outreach activities, and ways that the ROK can expand its contribution to the OECD.

※ The OECD Secretary-General was on a visit to the ROK on October 18 and 19 for the third Meeting of OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth and an ROK-China-Japan meeting on population.

2. Minister Kang and Secretary-General Gurria drew a common understanding that international cooperation should be enhanced in addressing such shared challenges of the international community as achieving inclusive growth, job creation and gender equality as well as responding to digitalization.

° The Minister, bringing attention to the ROK government’s priority on creating good-quality jobs and responding to the aging society in an integrated manner, mentioned that the OECD’s inclusive growth initiative will serve as a good benchmark for the ROK in implementing its main policies.

3. Secretary-General Gurria noted that close cooperation with the ROK, which had marked in 2016 the 20th anniversary of its accession to the OECD, is playing a big role in the OECD’s global outreach activities toward such regions as Southeast Asia. He went on to voice hope that the ROK will take on a bigger role in the OECD.

° Minister Kang, relaying the ROK’s commitment to continuously support the active work of the OECD as a global policy network, expressed hope that the scope of the ROK-OECD cooperation will broaden even further.

4. The meeting between the Minister and the Secretary-General is seen to have served as an opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the ROK as a responsible middle power member of the OECD to increase its contribution to and play a bigger role in the OECD, as well as the commitment of both sides to step up their cooperation in a mutually beneficial manner in addressing major challenges at home and abroad.


* unofficial translation