Republic of Korea (ROK) will open a representative office to ASEAN in Jakarta in July 2012. The opening of diplomatic mission is expected to be a mechanism to enhance the strategic partnership of ASEAN and ROK.
This is one of the results of the 14th Joint Planning and Review Committee, which was attended by the Permanent Representative (Watap) of ASEAN in Jakarta with their counterparts from the Republic of Korea at the ASEAN Secretariat (05/22).
Watap of Indonesia for ASEAN, Ambassador Ngurah Swajaya, as the Chairman of the Indonesian delegation at the meeting welcomed the plan of opening the Diplomatic Mission in Jakarta which will be led by the Ambassador of ROK to ASEAN.
"This is a follow up to the14th ASEAN-ROK Summit in Bali, November 2011, and in line with the idea of the government of Indonesia to make Jakarta as the capital of Southeast Asia (Diplomatic Capital of Southeast Asia)," concluded Ambassador Swajaya.
The meeting also noted a number of cooperation of connectivity sector of ASEAN-ROK in the framework of implementation of ASEAN Connectivity Master Plan.
"We agreed to intensify ASEAN-ROK interaction in the field of connectivity to facilitate cooperation in the field of physical infrastructure, institutional and inter-community connectivity development as outlined in ASEAN Connectivity Master plan," said Ambassador Swajaya.
To enhance cooperation in trade, investment, tourism and people to people contacts between ASEAN and Korea, the meeting also agreed to encourage the activities of the ASEAN-Korea Centre based in Seoul, South Korea.
The value of reciprocal trade targetted by ASEAN-ROK in 2015 is U.S. $ 150 billion, and U.S. $ 4.1 billion for foreign investment target. This certainly is a distinct improvement compared to previous years, where the ASEAN-Korea trade in 2010 stood at U.S. $ 97.2 billion and U.S. $ 3.8 billion in investment.
In the field of people to people cooperation, the meeting also agreed on concrete steps to enhance cooperation in the field of media exchange, the establishment of ASEAN-ROK Film Community, expanding youth exchange programs, and promoting cooperation in education and public health.
Related to the follow up of the 14th ASEAN-ROK Summit, a special meeting was held to discuss several issues, among others, forestry cooperation agreement signed in Bali, review of cooperation in information technology, particularly to reduce the digital divide and strengthen the benefits of information technology for development, Low Carbon Green Growth initiative and the East Asia Climate Partnership.
The mechanism of Joint Preparatory and Review is a review mechanism for the cooperation of strategic partnership conducted annually and attended by Permanent Representatives of ASEAN and ROK Ambassador to ASEAN at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. ASEAN-ROK cooperative partnership itself has been running for 20 years and the ASEAN-ROK strategic partnership was agreed in 2010. (Source: PTRI ASEAN/Ed.PY)