1. Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam attended a ceremony held on May 3 to celebrate the founding of the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO).

° The purpose of AFoCO, launched ten years after the Republic of Korea proposed founding at the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit held in 2009, is to promote forestry cooperation among Asian countries, which are vulnerable to climate change and forest destruction, and thereby build their capacity to respond to those issues. 

2. In his congratulatory remarks, Vice Minister Lim called the envisioned forestry cooperation through AFoCO one of the important ways to create an “ROK-ASEAN community for peace and prosperity for all citizens,” an objective of the ROK government’s New Southern Policy.

° The Vice Minister went on to ask the participants that they engage in people-centered forestry cooperation through AFoCO to increase incomes of people in forest areas across Asia and to support efforts to build capacity in the field; and that they thereby contribute to the work to build the “ROK-ASEAN community for peace” that seeks “a sustainable co-prosperity.”

* unofficial translation