BUSAN ― The leaders of South Korea and 10 Southeast Asian countries agreed Friday to maximize the use of their free trade agreement to achieve the 2020 target of $200 billion in two-way trade volume and continue to strengthen their multi-faceted strategic partnership.
In a joint statement announced at the close of the summit between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the leaders also agreed to bolster cooperation in development, security and other areas, and reaffirmed their commitment to the early denuclearization of the peninsula.
Held under the slogan of “Building Trust and Bringing Happiness,” the two-day summit ended with the adoption of the statement on the future vision of the bilateral partnership. It was held to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the dialogue relationship.
“Our leaders plan to set up the implementation plans for 2016 through 2020 after fleshing out the statement on our future vision, which we adopted today, looking ahead into the future,” said Park during a news conference with Myanmar President Thein Sein, who serves as this year’s rotating chair of ASEAN.
 |
| South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Myanmar counterpart, Thein Sein, speak at a joint news conference at the end of a special summit between South Korea and ASEAN in Busan on Dec. 12, 2014. (Yonhap) |
“Through the conscientious enforcement of the plans, we would like to work together to further develop our relationship into a partnership of mutual trust and happiness.”
South Korea has sought to court the bloc, which will become a giant integrated group boasting of a 640 million population and $3 trillion gross domestic product, not to mention rich natural resources and strategic locations linking the Indo-Pacific region. It consists of the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia
On the economic front, the two sides agreed to promote economic growth and development through further trade liberalization and regulatory improvements. They also agreed to try harder to expand their trade volume to $150 billion by 2015 and $200 billion by 2020.
The two-way trade volume has jumped sixteenfold to $135 billion last year from only $8.2 billion in 1989 ― the year the bilateral dialogue was first established.
The two sides also decided to enhance economic cooperation through the timely conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations by 2015. The RCEP is a mooted free trade deal involving 16 nations including South Korea, China and Japan.
On the security realm, the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation through ASEAN-led regional arrangements such as the ASEAN Regional Forum to promote peace, stability and security in the region. They also agreed to foster cooperation on various security challenges including terrorism and trafficking in persons and drugs.
As for the socio-cultural cooperation, the two sides agreed to further promote people-to-people contacts in both public and private sectors. ASEAN welcomed South Korea’s efforts to simplify the visa process for its nationals, and to build the “ASEAN cultural house” in Busan by 2017.
The announcement followed the two plenary summit sessions earlier in the day during which Park pledged to support the launch next year of the ASEAN Community through a series of programs including an increased contribution to the bilateral cooperation fund.
During the second session, Park stressed the need to turn global concerns about climate change and disaster responses into opportunities to develop new industries and technologies. For this, she made three proposals including fostering businesses to cope with climate change.
“To realize our vision of building trust and promoting happiness, the Korean government will jointly cooperate with ASEAN ― a partner for co-prosperity in the economic sector, for regional peace in the politics-security area and for cultural exchanges in the sociocultural realm,” said Park.
To facilitate the 2015 launch of the ASEAN Community, Park vowed to share with the bloc her country’s development experience to help address development gaps among the 10 ASEAN member states. She unveiled five concrete measures to support the ASEAN integration.
The measures are inviting ASEAN students to South Korea for a master’s degree course on regional development; educating ASEAN students majoring in science and engineering to help nurture future technicians; and increasing its contribution to the bilateral cooperation fund to $7 million from the current $5 million.
They also include the sharing of South Korea’s know-how in establishing an electronic governance system and improving public administration services; and supporting the region’s information and technology infrastructures.
Park also said that Seoul would seek to make the South Korea-ASEAN security dialogue, which was held for the first time in June, an annual event and deepen security ties with ASEAN ― commensurate with the evolving bilateral economic and cultural ties.
During the session on nontraditional security issues, Park proposed developing and spreading business models for responses to climate change; fostering businesses for disaster responses using information and communications technologies, and for safety protection; and strengthening cooperation in forestry and water resources.
As for the business models for climate change, Park said that in cooperation with the Green Climate Fund and Global Green Growth Institute, Seoul has been developing business models to support ASEAN’s responses to the environmental issue.
The models include a mechanism to use new renewable energies and the energy storage system to stably supply remote areas with electricity; an environmentally-friendly town that produces biogas, and electricity from the sunlight; and the spread of electrical cars.
For cooperation in the areas of forestry and water resources, Park touched on the provision of Seoul’s know-how in constructing new dams, and of financial support for a project to manage aging dams; and the establishment of a bilateral organization dedicated to forestry cooperation.
By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)
