1. The 1^st ROK-BIMP-EAGA Senior Officials’ Meeting was held on October 21, co-chaired by Ms. Eui-hae Cecilia Chung, Director-General for ASEAN and Southeast Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Dato’ Ahmad Zamri Bin Khairuddin, Acting Deputy Director-General of the Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department of Malaysia.

※ The Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) is an economic cooperation initiative established in 1994 to spur development in remote and less developed areas in the four participating Southeast Asian countries.

※ The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Brunei Darussalam, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Regional and Sub Regional Economic Cooperation of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia, and the Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines also attended the meeting as representatives of their respective countries.

2. The five countries shared the view that ROK-BIMP-EAGA cooperation would contribute to promoting inclusive and balanced growth in the Southeast Asian region, as well as ASEAN Connectivity, and discussed ways to increase cooperation between the two sides.

ㅇ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will carry out cooperation projects in various areas such as the environment, tourism, and connectivity by effectively utilizing the BIMP-EAGA-ROK Cooperation Fund (approx. 1 million USD), which was newly established this year.

ㅇ In particular, in consideration of the needs of BIMP-EAGA countries, which are vulnerable to climate change, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will actively support their efforts to respond to climate change by establishing a triangular partnership that includes the Global Green Growth Institute as the third party.

※ On the occasion of this meeting, the ROK and BIMP-EAGA designated the Global Green Growth Institute as a depositary of the BIMP-EAGA-ROK Cooperation Fund, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Global Green Growth Institute signed an MOU for a more efficient management of the fund.

3. ROK-BIMP-EAGA cooperation is part of the Korean government’s efforts to implement the ROK-Maritime Southeast Asia Cooperation Initiative, the launch of which was announced at the ASEAN-ROK Summit in 2020. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to work on expanding the horizon of the ROK’s cooperation with ASEAN, in addition to its cooperation with Mekong countries, by ensuring the stable launch and development of sub-regional cooperation between the ROK and Maritime Southeast Asia through BIMP-EAGA.