1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, hosted the sixth Mekong-Republic of Korea Business Forum in Seoul on December 13. The Forum, held with the support of the ASEAN-Korea Centre and INNOBIZ, brought together some 90 people, including government officials and entrepreneurs of the ROK and five countries in the Mekong region. At the event, the ROK’s head delegate, Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho, delivered opening remarks.

※ The five countries in the Mekong region are the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and the Kingdom of Thailand.

° The Mekong-ROK Business Forum was set up during the second bilateral foreign ministerial meeting in July 2012 with the aim to step up private-public cooperation between the two sides through more robust private investment and exchanges. It has been held in the five Mekong countries on an annual and rotational basis.

2. In his opening remarks, Vice Minister Lee highlighted the importance of the Mekong region, an area with abundant natural resources and young work force, for the ROK in implementing its New Southern Policy; and forecast that the inaugural Mekong-ROK summit, scheduled to come on the occasion of the 2019 ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit in Seoul, will serve as an opportunity to dramatically advance the bilateral cooperative ties.

° In particular, the Vice Minister, underscoring the importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for economic growth and job creation, and hence for inclusive growth, voiced hope that the Mekong-ROK Business Forum will play an active role as a major platform of private-public cooperation for co-prosperity of SMEs in the ROK and the Mekong region.

3. At the Forum, themed “Promoting Co-prosperity through Eco-friendly Innovation among SMEs in the Mekong Countries and the ROK,” the participants from the two sides shared business conditions and sustainable development policies of the ROK and the Mekong countries.

° Some 20 SMEs from the Mekong region and about 30 Korean SMEs held one-on-one business consultations to explore the possibility of market entry in environment-friendly fields.

4. The Mekong-ROK Business Forum, the sixth of its kind and the first held in Seoul, is seen to have served as an opportunity to boost SMEs-led private exchanges through private-public cooperation between the two regions and thereby to enhance the ROK-Mekong ties at multiple levels.

* unofficial translation