1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will co-host the “2nd ROK-CELAC Workshop on Capacity-building for the Internationalization of SMEs” in El Salvador, holding the presidency of CELAC, on December 8.

o The upcoming workshop marks the second project for substantive cooperation between the ROK and CELAC, following the workshop on SMEs held for the first time in Chile in December last year. The workshop takes place as the two sides agreed to hold the second workshop on SMEs, building upon the results of the first workshop, in the 6th ROK-CELAC Quartet foreign ministers’ meeting (September 22), held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September this year.

o This year’s workshop will be held under the theme “paperless trade,” being considered a new paradigm for trade.

2. The workshop will consist of three sessions: △(Session 1) ROK and Latin American countries’ policies for the internationalization of SMEs and related trends, △(Session 2) policies for paperless trade and exemplary cases, and △(Session 3) ways for the ROK and CELAC to work together.

3. The forthcoming workshop will be attended by about 30 government officials dealing with the internationalization of SMEs and paperless trade from around 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Colombia. Participants from the ROK, including officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and KTNet, a paperless trade service provider, will make presentations about the ROK’s policies and cases.

o Participants in the workshop will share the ROK and CELAC members’ policies and experiences regarding the internationalization of SMEs and paperless trade. They will also discuss how the ROK and CELAC can step up cooperation in the areas, and build policy networks between the two sides.

4. The upcoming workshop, which comes after the first project for substantive cooperation between the two sides, is expected to help further strengthen cooperative relations between the ROK and CELAC, a key regional bloc of all 33 Latin American and Caribbean states, and diversify areas of cooperation.

o The workshop will serve as an opportunity to share with Latin America the ROK’s paperless trade system, being acknowledged as one of the best in the world, as well as its policies to support the growth of SMEs, one of the new ROK government’s major tasks, and related experiences. It is also expected to become a good opportunity to explore the possibility of exporting the ROK’s paperless trade system to the Latin American region.


* unofficial translation