Congratulatory Remarks
By H.E LEE Tae-ho
Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of ROK

Your Excellency SOK Siphana, Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia, now my good friend,
Oknha Nguon Meng Tech, Secretary General of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce,
Your Excellency Chea Vuthy, Deputy Secretary General of the Cambodian Investment Board,
Your Excellency Kim Weon-jin, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Cambodia,
Mr. KANG Nam Shik, Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia,

Distinguished delegates from Mekong countries, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam,
Distinguished business leaders, 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the Third Mekong-Korea Business Forum. I feel greatly honored to co-host this Forum on behalf of the Korean government. Let me extend my sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Government of Cambodia and the Council for the Development of Cambodia for the excellent organization of this forum.
 
We have already held two forum meetings since its inception in 2013. This year’s Forum, however, seems to be all the more significant as ASEAN is headed toward the launch of the Economic Community at the year’s end, as His Excellency SOK Siphana just noted. In this regard, the theme of this year's forum, namely "Launch of ASEAN Economic Community: Opportunities for Mekong-ROK Trade and Investment," seems timely and appropriate. 

In fact, all eyes in the world are directed on ASEAN. ASEAN gears up to transform itself into the world's largest single consumer market and production base with a population of 6.4 billion and GDP of 3 trillion dollars. ASEAN is poised to become the logistics hub that will connect our region with the entire world. The OECD predicts that it will constitute 60% of the global middle class consumer base by the year 2030.

Obviously, the Mekong subregion is at the heart of the vast potential of ASEAN. Look at its abundance of rich natural resources and its young and vibrant labor force. In fact, most of the Mekong countries have witnessed continuous economic growth even in the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis. In the decade to come, the Mekong countries will likely achieve an annual growth of 4 to 8 %. The Mekong economic belt is driving ASEAN’s growth and is playing a pivotal role in advancing the launch of the ASEAN Community.

The core of integrated ASEAN market lies on the reduction of the regional development gaps in the Mekong Region. The Republic of Korea, like other development partners, supports ASEAN’s efforts to reduce this gap. Leaders of both Korea and the ASEAN ten countries met for a Commemorative summit last December in Busan. The leaders recognized the importance of the Mekong-ROK framework and reaffirmed Korea’s commitment to engage itself in narrowing the regional development gaps and strengthening regional connectivity. To this end, they resolved to implement the Mekong-ROK Action Plan for 2014-2017 as well as other regional economic cooperation initiatives.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Most of the Mekong countries are relatively late comers in ASEAN. Until now they have made efforts to fill the development gaps with other ASEAN countries. But if you look at this situation from a different angle, the countries in the Mekong region have a unique advantage of using the experiences of the other ASEAN countries. They can learn from the challenges their ASEAN sister countries have already encountered on their path to development. In this sense, Korea also seems an ideal partner to the Mekong countries. The Mekong countries could be inspired from Korea's experience in identifying and overcoming the challenges of development such as the middle income trap.

Cooperation between the Mekong countries and Korea is still in its initial stage. The Mekong-ROK Foreign Minister’s meeting was established in year 2011. In an effort to support political, economical, social, and cultural development in the Mekong region, the Korean government has established a cooperative fund, although its initial amount is still modest. Cooperation in the public sector is also supplemented by close collaboration between the business communities of Korea and Mekong. The Mekong-Korea Business Forum was launched two years ago in this context.

The Mekong-ROK Business Forum had started even before the ASEAN-ROK Business Council, which was launched only in December of last year. This is a testament to the importance the Korean business community attaches to the Mekong region. The Mekong region is fast becoming a new frontier for Korean companies. More and more Korean companies are shifting their production base from China to the Mekong region. Between 2010 to 2014, the ROK-Mekong trade has doubled from 248 billion to 487 billion, while investment has increased by about 50% from 221 billion to 320 billion dollars.

As His Excellency SOK Siphana mentioned, connectivity is an integral element to the region’s strengthened economic competitiveness. Infrastructures such as roads, railways, and ports, as well as logistics network, including the 9 economic corridors, are being built in this region. This will strengthen connectivity across the region. However, matching the so-called soft infrastructures with these hard infrastructures is also important.

To boost competitiveness, businesses must lower not only the cost of production but also that of transaction. So far, this has proved to be a challenge due to non-tariff barriers, as His Excellency SOK Siphana mentioned, including various border barriers caused by different administrative systems among the Mekong countries. In this regard, Korea's advanced technologies could be utilized to lower the cost caused by these border barriers. Korea is ready to support the establishment in the Mekong region of a single window for the customs procedures, an electronic customs, and an automatic clearance system. Korea has been cooperating with the Mekong Institute to finance the GMS FREATA Logistic professional training program. This year the project will move into its second phase. Korea looks forward to continuing collaboration in this area.

Ladies and gentlemen,

My government is confident that this business forum will continue to serve as an important venue for furthering the business partnership between the Mekong region and Korea in the years to come. I hope that this year's forum will provide an important occasion to improve the understanding on the part of Korean companies of the business environment in the Mekong and identify trade and investment opportunities. I hope that all the participants will be engaged in the constructive and in-depth discussions and exchanges of view on the theme.

Once again, thank you all for coming to participate in this forum. 
Thank you very much.