Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Minister for Trade Inkyo Cheong met Deputy Secretary General for ASEAN Economic Community Satvinder Singh on September 4 at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in Seoul, where he introduced Korea’s pan-ministerial Trade Policy Roadmap (“Roadmap”) and discussed measures for bilateral economic cooperation.

Deputy Secretary General Singh held high regard for the Roadmap’s emphasis on the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI) and on wider cooperation with the Global South as proposed measures to expand the Korea-ASEAN economic cooperation. He also expressed hopes for tangible outcomes from the ongoing Korea-ASEAN joint projects, such as those for official development assistance (ODA), standards cooperation, and electrical safety management.

In commemoration of this year marking the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Korea-ASEAN dialogue relations, Trade Minister Cheong shared that efforts will continue to advance their comprehensive cooperation across economy, society, and culture, while trade policies will concentrate on expanding and strengthening concrete cooperation with ASEAN, a key region of the Global South.

The bilateral talks were held with the objective of reviewing outcomes of the existing Korea-ASEAN economic cooperation and future directions in preparation for the Korea-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting slated for this September in Vientiane, Laos.