Speech 
                                                                     by
                                                                  H.E. Kwon Jong-rak 
                                           Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade  
                                                           Republic of Korea
                                                                     at
                                                         7th East Asia Forum 
                                                            2009.9.2, Seoul

 Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

 First, I would like to give my warmest welcome to all the delegates who attend the 7th 
East Asia Forum. It is indeed my great pleasure to see the representatives of the governments, 
industries, and academia from the ASEAN+3 countries gathered again here in Seoul, where 
this Forum was first launched in 2003.

 Over the last 6 years, the EAF has served the role as the only comprehensive forum bringing 
together delegates from the governments and civil societies of our thirteen countries in 
East Asia. Based on the outcomes of the previous EAFs, I hope this 7th EAF will provide us with 
another opportunity to discuss practical measures that will further contribute to the process of 
East Asia community building.

 Distinguished delegates, 

 It is widely stated that the 21st century will be the "Era of Asia." Today, East Asia has a 
population of over 2 billion and a GDP of over 11 trillion USD, which represents 31% of the world's 
population and 18% of the world's GDP, respectively.  The region is emerging as one of the three 
epicenters of the global economy with North America and the European Union; the trade volume 
reaches 6.6 trillion USD, which accounts for 21% of the world's trade.

 With increasing trade and people-to-people exchanges, the interdependence among the 
East Asian countries is also set to increase still further. In this way, East Asia stands as a region 
with infinite potential for development. 

 Yet, at the same time, East Asia is faced with serious global challenges such as the economic 
and financial crisis, terrorism, climate change, food and energy crisis, and development gap. 
These challenges are not confined to one specific country and therefore demand coordinated 
efforts among the countries in the region to deal with them.  

 Fortunately, continuous efforts have been made among the East Asian countries to strengthen 
substantial cooperation and pursue integration with a view to addressing these challenges.

 Above all, the 「ASEAN Charter」 came into effect last December as a cornerstone for ASEAN 
integration. And the 「Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community」 
was adopted at the 14th ASEAN Summit last February, reaffirming ASEAN's commitment to 
build an ASEAN Community by 2015.   

 Regional cooperation toward building an East Asian community is also being cemented in the 
ASEAN+3 cooperation framework. The strengthening of ASEAN+3 cooperation so far has 
helped raise the chance of building an East Asian community. 

 The Asian financial crisis of 1997 rendered a worthy lesson on the necessity of close 
cooperation between the Southeast and Northeast regions. In face of this crisis, the East Asian 
countries united their efforts to overcome the tough challenges by creating the ASEAN+3 
cooperation network.

 At the 11th ASEAN+3 Summit in 2007, which was the year of the 10th anniversary of the 
Summit, the leaders of the ASEAN+3 countries adopted the「Second Joint Statement on 
East Asian Cooperation」and the「ASEAN+3 Cooperation Work Plan (2007-2017)」, which 
prescribed the future direction of cooperation for the next decade. More recently, in April this 
year, ASEAN+3 succeeded in laying the institutional foundation to further deepen ASEAN+3 
cooperation with the establishment of the ASEAN+3 Cooperation Fund.

 With the recent global financial crisis, movements toward promoting cooperation and integration 
in the region have further accelerated. The East Asian countries that suffered from the severe 
economic crisis a decade ago are now seeking ways to overcome the current crisis more 
proactively, fostering grandiose financial cooperative measures such as the Chiang Mai Initiative 
Multilateralization and the Asia Bond Market Initiative.

 In addition, economic integration in East Asia has gained momentum for further development. 
Korea, China and Japan have already concluded free trade agreements with ASEAN, 
respectively, and the second phase of the joint study for an "East Asia Free Trade Area" has 
also been completed. Based on this, I hope that
discussion on economic integration in East Asia will be more accelerated.

 Given these achievements in ASEAN+3 cooperation, I have all confidence that a more advanced 
East Asian community as an intra-regional cooperative mechanism can be created.

 Now let me explain Korea's efforts for further strengthening regional cooperation.

 Korea fully supports the efforts to enhance regional cooperation and to further build an East Asia 
community, and will participate actively in the process.

 In regard to this, President Lee Myung-bak declared to further strengthen Korea's cooperation with 
our neighboring countries in Asia by announcing the "New Asia Initiative" in March this year.

 The aim of the Initiative is to forge a partnership with Korea's neighbors for the common prosperity 
of Asia. Placing the partnership with ASEAN as the foundation in implementing the Initiative, 
Korea will seek ways to promote regional cooperation in various fields and to contribute to 
the process of East Asia community building. 

 As part of such efforts, we announced our cooperative measures at the ASEAN-ROK 
Commemorative Summit in June in order to cement our cooperation with ASEAN. By 2015, 
we plan to double our ODA to the ASEAN countries, to invite 7,000 trainees from the ASEAN 
countries to impart our own experience in economic development and to dispatch 10,000 
volunteers under the "World Friends Korea" program. By 2012, we will also double the number of 
students from the ASEAN member countries coming to Korea under the government scholarship 
program.

 Korea will also expand and strengthen our economic cooperation with neighboring countries. 
In this vein, we are now establishing FTA networks with the other East Asian countries. 
For instance, we signed a Free Trade Agreement on Investment with ASEAN in June this year, 
on the sidelines of the Jeju Commemorative Summit, and thus completed the Korea-ASEAN FTA 
together with the Agreements on Goods and Services between Korea and ASEAN. We are also 
currently in consultations with other Asian countries regarding FTAs. 

 Moreover, Korea is now forging even stronger ties with the other Asian countries in dealing with 
key global issues such as the global financial crisis, climate change, development gap, and food 
and energy security.  

 As part of such efforts, we are seeking ways to share our vision of "Low Carbon, Green Growth" 
and to assist the developing countries in East Asia in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions and to deal with climate change. Korea has pledged to provide 100 million USD to 
the ASEAN countries from the year 2008 to 2012 out of "East Asia Climate Partnership."

 With a view to supporting ASEAN's efforts to narrow the development gap, Korea will render 
continued support the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI). 

 I am confident that our commitment towards enhancing cooperation in East Asia will further 
contribute to East Asian integration and East Asia community building.

 Distinguished delegates,

 As we all continue to put our efforts into intra-regional cooperation in East Asia, we have been 
able to witness many results. Nevertheless, we still have a long way to go.

 Above all, by looking at the precedents set by the European Union, we can see the need to 
begin promoting our efforts for integration in the areas that we have already engaged our 
cooperation in. The countries in East Asia have concluded or are in the process of concluding 
their respective FTAs with other countries in the region, and initial discussions on regional 
economic integration are now under way. We can accelerate discussions on East Asia 
community building by setting regional economic integration as the main pillar of East Asian 
integration.

 In addition, it is indispensable to foster a regional identity among the East Asian people in 
order to accelerate East Asia community building. East Asia is a unique region that has various 
cultures, religions, races, and languages. Thus, we need to foster a strong sense of East Asian 
identity that embraces the political, cultural, and religious diversities in the region.

 Moreover, in order to create an environment favorable towards regional integration for building 
East Asia community, maintaining regional peace and stability would be imperative. To meet 
this goal, we need to duly resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, as this concern has continued 
to undermine peace and stability in East Asia. Through this process, we are also striving to 
improve bilateral relations among the participants of the Six-Party Talks.

 Resolving the North Korean nuclear issue in a peaceful manner through the Six-Party Talks would 
greatly contribute to the common prosperity of East Asian countries. It would also help accelerate 
discussions on Northeast Asia Peace and Security Mechanism, which would serve as a basis for 
building East Asia community. 
 
 Distinguished representatives,

 The EAF has served as a unique platform in which the representatives with diverse professional 
backgrounds gather together and freely share new visions and ideas on a variety of regional issues.
 I anticipate fruitful discussions on substantial ways to realize the vision of an East Asia 
community in the respective W/G sessions under the main theme of today's meeting - 
"Accelerating the Integration for the East Asian Community Building" - as well as in the plenary 
sessions.

 In particular, I hope participants will have in-depth discussions on various measures to revitalize 
the EAF based on the proposed concept paper, such as establishing a cyber secretariat and 
holding Track 2 meetings back-to-back with the EAF.

 Thank you for your attention.