외교부

His Excellency, Mr. Wunna Maung Lwin, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar,
Distinguished Delegates from the ASEAN Plus Three countries,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Myanmar Government for hosting the 10th East Asia Forum. It is a great honor for me to have the chance to share my ideas on the integration and development of East Asia with eminent leaders in business, government and academia from around the region.

Since its establishment, the EAF has secured its place as the main channel for networks among the leaders of business, government and academia of the ASEAN Plus Three countries. It has also played a key role in promoting cooperation between the public and private sectors with the aim of building an East Asian community.

In fact, establishing a community by deepening and expanding the cooperation among individual states is a long process, and it requires sincere efforts and serious reflection.

In the last ten years, the EAF has provided a venue for a free exchange of new ideas and solutions to problems facing the region by delegates from various backgrounds. Such exchanges of ideas have served as a valuable basis for greater development in East Asia over the last decade.

Distinguished Delegates,

It is often said that the 21st century is Asia's century. ASEAN Plus Three alone accounts for 20 percent of the global GDP and 25 percent of the global trade volume, and its population of 2 billion accounts for over 30 percent of the world's population.

Its share of global GDP is set to surpass that of the United States and Europe in 2014 and 2020 respectively, according to the Asian Development Bank. East Asia, undoubtedly, has transformed itself into one of the central axes of the global economy.

In order to maintain the momentum for growth and establish an East Asian community through continued prosperity and development in the region, it is important that the development gap be narrowed.

The issue of narrowing the development gap between developed and developing states has been the focus of proper attention. ASEAN member countries are seeking to narrow the development gap with the "Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity" and "Initiative for ASEAN Integration." The ROK, China and Japan, for their part, are also joining the efforts in various ways. With a view to realizing the East Asian community, it is imperative to come up with substantial ways to secure similar levels of economic development, and the example of the European Union is a case in point.

Distinguished Delegates,

In addition to the efforts to narrow development gap between developed and developing states, we need also to pay attention to the issue of domestic development gap within individual states. Because the gap within a state could hinder the overall development of our region. In this respect, the forum's theme today, "Narrowing the development gap in rural and urban communities" could not be more appropriate.

With the ongoing global industrialization, absolute poverty in rural areas is rapidly disappearing. But the situation in rural areas of many East Asian countries is quite different. They are still suffering from poverty, overpopulation, poor living condition. This in turn would widen the urban-rural income gap and exacerbate the problem of relative poverty.

The ROK has experience of dealing with the urban-rural development gap that emerged during its process of economic development. In the 1970s, the Korean agricultural sector was caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, left behind in the industrialization process.

80 percent of the houses in rural areas were thatched and had no electricity. There were few cars and cultivators since most roads were not suitable for them. Even worse, people living in rural areas saw poverty as their destiny and spent their days with alcohol and gambling during the winter time or in low seasons in agriculture.

In order to overcome this, the ROK Government launched the Saemaeul Movement with the intention of modernizing the rural areas, achieving balanced growth among regions, and encouraging people to think in a new way.

The Saemaeul Movement transformed the lifestyle of the residents of rural areas by prompting them to voluntarily participate in projects such as the construction and expansion of town and farm roads, and maintenance of waterways. As a result of the Saemaeul Movement, tractors passed freely over newly constructed farm roads, and the rural areas which had been left behind were drastically transformed, improving the general productivity of the country. Not only that, but the message of hope that with hard work everyone will be better off, led to a change in people's mindsets, thereby becoming a very source of Korea's industrialization.

The key thing to note here is that the Saemaeul Movement would have failed if it had simply poured money and supplies into rural areas. Its success rested on a strategy that combined cooperation based on community spirit and the voluntary participation of farmers with the supplies from government to develop infrastructure of rural areas.

The ROK is sharing its experience of the Saemaeul Movement with developing countries, and through Korea-ASEAN cooperation projects, we are contributing to the capacity building of government officials and experts in the agricultural and fishing sector, income enhancement of workers in primary industry, and the construction of infrastructure. Moreover, the ROK launched the Korea-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting last year, making it a venue for cooperation for the improvement of various kinds of infrastructure in the Mekong River area.

The ROK Government, however, believes that, in addition to state level efforts like that of the ROK Government, there is a need for policy coordination at the regional level. The development of rural areas is no longer an issue of concern for individual states only, but a necessary element to move forward with the establishment of an East Asian community through balanced growth of various regions, and to respond to the food security crisis that has emerged due to global climate change.

In this context, the ROK takes note of active research that is being conducted through channels among the Ministries of Agriculture of the ASEAN Plus Three countries on issues such as enhancing the region's agricultural productivity and ways to respond to the food security crisis. Moreover, Korea welcomes the fact that the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve Agreement has recently come into effect.

Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is a monumental year which marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN Plus Three. So far, ASEAN Plus Three has developed into the most institutionalized cooperation mechanism in East Asia, producing significant outcomes. This year should serve as an opportunity to further the cooperation among the ASEAN Plus Three countries, and to this end we hope that the Second East Asian Vision Group will set out the future direction for further cooperation for ASEAN Plus Three at the next Summit.

In addition, it is my hope that the EAF can play an even more active role, thus contributing to the building of the East Asian community, and in this regard I very much look forward to a lively discussion today.

Thank you for your kind attention.

외교통상부 이(가) 창작한 제10차 동아시아포럼(EAF) 개회식 기조연설문 저작물은 "공공누리" 출처표시-상업적이용금지-변경금지 조건에 따라 이용 할 수 있습니다.