1. The Foreign Ministry, together with the Ministry of Planning and Finance of Myanmar, hosted the fourth Republic of Korea-Mekong Business Forum in Yangon, Myanmar, on June 30. First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam led the ROK delegation at the event that brought together some 100 people from the ROK and the five countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion, including trade- and investment-related government officials and delegates from 45 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

2. In his congratulatory remarks at the opening ceremony of the forum, Vice Minister Lim highlighted the importance of private investment for sustainable development of Greater Mekong, a region with abundant resources as well as a consumer and labor market with more than 240 million people. He noted that in an effort to support cooperation between SMEs of the ROK and the Greater Mekong countries, the ROK government is actively rendering assistance with the construction of not only infrastructure that is hardly likely to draw private investment but also public, institutional infrastructure, such as for healthcare and education.

° The Vice Minister also brought attention to the fact that 72% of the ROK’s accumulated official development assistance (ODA) of some 3.4 billion US dollars for ASEAN has been channeled into assisting four countries in Greater Mekong -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam; informed the participants of various programs conducted with the ROK-ASEAN and the ROK-Mekong Cooperation Funds to narrow the development gap and enhance connectivity in Greater Mekong; and reaffirmed the ROK government’s commitment to step up substantive cooperation with the Greater Mekong region.

3. The fourth ROK-Mekong Business Forum, which came on the basis of cooperation built as the outcome of the previous rounds held over the past three years, covered in detail ways for “Realizing Investment Opportunities in Mekong Sub-region.” In conjunction with the forum, one-on-one business consultations were held for entrepreneurs of the ROK and the Greater Mekong countries to exchange information and explore the possibility of expanding their presence in each other’s markets.


* unofficial translation