1. Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, in his capacity as the Republic of Korea’s head delegate, attended the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) South East Asia Regional Program (SEARP) Ministerial Conference in Tokyo on March 8 to 9.

※ The OECD SEARP, launched in 2014, is one of the OECD’s five regional cooperation programs designed to promote cooperation with non-OECD countries. It is co-chaired by a member state of the OECD and another of ASEAN.

※ The Conference consists of a Ministerial Forum on March 8; and the fourth SEARP Steering Group Meeting on March 9, which Permanent Representative of the ROK to the OECD Yoon Jong-won will attend.

2. The Conference 2018, themed “Inclusive ASEAN,” was co-organized by the OECD and the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The ROK and Thailand joined the Conference in their capacity as the next co-chairs of the OECD SEARP Steering Group from March 2018 till March 2021.

° Among the other participants were Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Masamichi Kono, ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi, and minister-level officials of ASEAN member countries.

※ Prior to the Forum, Vice Minister Cho met bilaterally with Deputy Foreign Minister Virasakdi Futrakul of Thailand, a next co-chair, during which the two senior diplomats agreed to work closely together during their service as the OECD SEARP co-chairs to successfully conduct the Program.

3. At the Ministerial Forum on March 8, Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun delivered an address, highlighting the importance of the connectivity among the ROK government’s “people-centered economy” policy, the OECD’s “inclusive growth initiative,” and ASEAN’s goal to build “a people-oriented and people-centered community.” He also relayed the ROK government’s commitment to fulfilling its initiative to establish an ROK-ASEAN community and stepping up the ROK-ASEAN cooperation through the former’s New Southern Policy.

° The Vice Minister, particularly underscoring the importance of people-to-people exchanges with ASEAN, cited transportation, energy, water resources and smart cities as the four top areas that the ROK government will work in with ASEAN in order to improve connectivity.

4. Vice Minister Cho mentioned that the ROK government had successfully hosted the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games as Olympics of peace and thereby helped mitigate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, asking the ASEAN member states to remain supportive of the ROK government’s strong efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.

5. In the wake of the Ministerial Forum, the Vice Minister attended the reception hosted by Foreign Minister Kono, and formally took over the co-chairmanship from the former co-chairs -- Japan and Indonesia.

6. The ROK’s forthcoming service as a co-chair of the OECD SEARP is expected to help to enhance the country’s international standing, to bolster connectivity between key projects of the OECD SEARP and the country’s New Southern Policy, and thereby to reap better results from the Policy.

* unofficial translation