1. To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of Dialogue Partnership between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and ASEAN countries as well as the 2019 ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit (November 25-26, Busan), the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold the Southeast Asia Book Fair at the Starfield Library, COEX, Seoul, from September 18 to 22, 2019.

○ 17 publishers from six countries including the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, the Kingdom of Thailand, the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Singapore and the Republic of the Philippines will join the event in which various genres of books such as novels, essays and illustrated fairy tales written in Southeast Asian languages as well as books written by the ROK writers published in the six countries will be displayed.

2. In celebration of this book fair, a special cultural event will take place at the Starfield Library on Wednesday, September 18, at 17:30 for 90 minutes.

○ Moderated by literary critic Heo Hee, Puuung (ROK) and Zulie (Indonesia) will present on their joint illustration works in the first session. In the second session, Jang Kang-myung (ROK), Ta Duy Anh (Vietnam) and Prapt (Thailand) will hold a book talk.

○ Ambassador for Public Diplomacy Chang Jae-bok will attend the cultural event, and deliver his welcoming remarks at the reception attended by participants from relevant agencies including publishers at home and from Southeast Asian countries, ASEAN Diplomatic Corps in the ROK and the ASEAN-Korea Centre.

3. On September 19, a workshop and business matching event will be held for publishers from the ROK and Southeast Asian countries, during which the participants will explore concrete ways to step up exchanges in the field, and achieve shared prosperity as well as the possibility of entering each other’s markets in the future.

4. Together with the Eric Yang Agency, one of major publishing and copyright agencies in the ROK, 17 Southeast Asian publishers scheduled to attend this event will donate 1,390 books to organizations such as relevant university libraries, Multicultural Library in Ansan and ASEAN Diplomatic Missions in the ROK for the ROK students majoring in Southeast Asian languages in the ROK and nationals of Southeast Asia currently living in the ROK (the book donation event will be held on September 19).

○ As books published by Southeast Asian publishers as well as the ROK writers’ books translated and published in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are given to such organizations, this donation will serve as an opportunity for nationals of the three countries to read the ROK literary works in their own first languages.

5. Since 2006, the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs has implemented the “Strategic Cultural Exchange Promotion Program,” aiming to create a cultural bond and seek ways to raise mutual awareness through cultural and art exchanges with various countries. The Southeast Asia Book Fair is expected to contribute to promoting bilateral cultural exchanges not by unilaterally spreading and disseminating the ROK cultural contents, but by presenting cultural contents of the other counterpart countries to the ROK. Furthermore, this event is expected to allow the ROK nationals to become more familiar with Southeast Asian countries by visualizing people-to-people and cultural exchanges, one of three pillars -- People, Prosperity and Peace -- set forth in the ROK government’s New Southern Policy.