South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday offered a set of proposals to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as part of Seoul’s efforts to further boost ties with one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.
Park said South Korea will raise its contribution to a cooperation fund by US$2 million to $7 million next year for a wide-range of projects in the region, including human resources development.
South Korea has contributed about $67 million to the ASEAN-South Korea Cooperation Fund following the establishment of dialogue between the two sides in 1989.
“We should upgrade the strategic partnership with more substantial cooperation,” Park said in a speech at a summit with her Southeast Asian counterparts in Busan.
The leaders are gathered in this South Korean port city for a two-day special summit to lay out a blueprint for cooperation between the two sides.
Park unveiled a plan to invite about 100 people in science and engineering fields from the region each year for training programs in South Korea.
She also voiced hope to share South Korea’s development experience with Southeast Asian countries through Seoul’s “Saemaeul Movement,” or new community movement.
The initiative — launched by Park’s father, then President Park Chung-hee in the 1970s — is credited with helping modernize the then-rural South Korean economy.
South Korea has since become an economic powerhouse in Asia from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Park also set $200 billion as a new target amount for trade between South Korea and ASEAN, compared with $135 billion last year, by facilitating their free trade agreement.
ASEAN has emerged as one of the key trade partners of South Korea in recent decades. ASEAN is South Korea’s No. 3 investment destination and second-largest trade partner.
Park and other leaders are set to adopt a joint statement at the end of a summit later in the day.
Earlier this week, Park held back-to-back meetings with leaders of Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
She plans to hold talks with her Cambodian counterpart in Seoul on Saturday.
Park told some of the leaders during her bilateral talks that South Korean companies want to participate in infrastructure projects in the region, including a US$13 billion project to build a high-speed railway that stretches some 400 kilometers between Malaysia and Singapore. (Yonhap)
