1. The four-day 2013 Meeting of Consuls-General of the Republic of Korea, the first of its kind since the launch of the Park Geun-hye government, ended on July 11.

2. The meeting provided a precious opportunity for consuls-general to increase their understanding of the Park Geun-hye government’s administrative vision and priorities and to engage in an in-depth exchange of views on practical measures to achieve the “happiness of the people,” “economic revival” and “cultural enrichment” in their host countries.

3. Not only the opening ceremony of the meeting but discussion sessions were open to the public for the first time in order to reach out to the people and increase their participation in the meeting. In addition, the meeting offered a variety of programs, including lectures by people outside the Foreign Ministry, visits to civil service agencies and creative economy-related sites, and volunteer work, so that consuls-general can listen to the opinions of people on the ground firsthand.

4. In his closing address, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se noted that with consuls-general’s active participation, the 2013 meeting achieved substantive results and requested that consuls-general do their best with a strong sense of duty and professionalism to open an “era of happiness of the people.”

5. Consuls-general are expected to work to provide tailored services that can impress the people based on the Park Geun-hye government’s policy priorities and foreign policy direction that they learned about at the latest meeting. They will also contribute to realizing the “happiness of the people,” the Park Geun-hye government’s key policy goal, through diplomacy which takes into account the situations in each region.


                   Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation