1. Deputy Minister for Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kim Gunn will explore ways for post-COVID-19 cooperation with Central American countries, including taking full advantage of the Republic of Korea-Central America FTA, which took effect in October 2019, at the Seminar on Korea-Central America New Cooperation Vision which will take place at Plaza Hotel on October 14, 2020 to mark the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the bicentennial of the independence of Central America in 2021.

° The Seminar, co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, will feature welcoming remarks by Deputy Minister Kim Gunn and a keynote presentation by Director-General for Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Hwang Kyung Tae of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as presentations by Korean experts, all of which will be delivered in person.

° Central American countries will join the Seminar virtually in real time. Among the online participants will be officials of foreign ministries of Central American countries and SICA’s General Secretariat as well as officials of the ROK Embassies in those countries.

2. The ROK and the Central American countries have steadily developed cooperative relations over about 60 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations as long-standing friends sharing such values as democracy and market economy. The ROK’s FTA with Central America was brought into force in October 2019 for the first time among the Asian countries, and the ROK joined the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) in January 2020, which is expected to lead to a further increase in Korean companies’ investment as well as presence in infrastructure projects in the region.

° In addition, Central America is emerging as a target region for strengthening post-COVID-19 cooperation, because its strategic value as a promising candidate for nearshoring has enhanced further in the course of the rapid restructuring of the global value chains since the outbreak of COVID-19.

3. The Seminar, which will be held ahead of such historic events as the bicentennial of the independence of Central America and the 30th anniversary of the launch of SICA in 2021, is the first seminar held with the Central American countries with the aim to promote strategic substantive cooperation with SICA. It will serve as an opportunity to present a vision for future cooperation between the ROK and Central America and to discuss in detail the K-quarantine model since the outbreak of COVID-19 and ways for substantive cooperation, including building presence in post-COVID-19 infrastructure projects in Central America by utilizing the Korean New Deal policy.

° In particular, the Seminar will be meaningful as an opportunity to analyze the changes and outlooks in the economic environment in Central America in the post-COVID-19 era and to discuss ways for sustainable cooperation between the ROK and Central America in health and medical care, infrastructure, digital affairs and the green industry, among others.

° The Seminar, which will be broadcast in real time on the social network channels of the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Bureau of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is also expected to be an opportunity to enhance the understanding and awareness of people of the two regions on the future direction of the ROK-Central America cooperation.