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| ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary-General Kim Hae-yong speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the intergovernmental organization’s headquarters in central Seoul, Sept. 13. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Secretary-General Kim hopes for balanced ASEAN-Korea ties
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been one of the most important partners of Korea since 1989. To boost economic, social and cultural exchanges between Korea and the ASEAN member states, the ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) was founded in 2009.
Kim Hae-yong, who was inaugurated as the fifth secretary-general of the AKC in April, recognizes that he took the post for the intergovernmental organization to bridge the ASEAN and Korea at a crucial point.
“The ASEAN is getting closer to us in economic relations as well as in people-to-people exchanges. The AKC has played a significant role in the past in developing the ASEAN-Korean relations and I hope to evolve our partnership into genuine friendship,” Kim said during an interview with The Korea Times, Sept. 13.
The ASEAN-Korea relations developed extensively in the past three decades: the volume of trade jumped 20 times and the amount of investment increased 60 times. ASEAN is now Korea’s second-largest trading partner, with a $153.3-billion trade volume as of 2019. Over 17,000 Korean companies are active in ASEAN.
In recent years, over 10 million Koreans visited the 10 ASEAN countries ― Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam ― yearly, as the region is a popular tourist destination among Koreans.
Korea also provides official development assistance (ODA) to ASEAN countries, which amounts to 23 percent of the total ODA projects financed by Korea.
Kim said that it is time to streamline and upgrade the AKC’s projects and activities through its 12 years of expertise and network.
“The ASEAN has been developing continuously and the ASEAN-Korea relations have to keep up with the changes. The ASEAN announced the “ASEAN 2025,” with its three pillars, of Political-Security Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community, and Korea’s New Southern Policy aims at boosting ties with the ASEAN countries. The AKC tries to find ways to promote ASEAN-Korea relations based on these basic strategies,” Kim said.
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| A performance takes place during the ASEAN Week event at Seoul Plaza in 2019, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN-Korea dialogues. This year’s ASEAN Week event will be held at COEX in southern Seoul on Oct. 5-6. Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Centre |
The ASEAN is gaining attention as a global growth engine, as it is now an economic community with 650 million people and a combined GDP of $3 trillion.
“The ASEAN was founded in 1967 with five countries for security concerns, but it has expanded to 10 countries and now includes economic and cultural aspects. The ASEAN was known as a great production base due to its rich resources and young workforce, but has become an important consumer market as national income increased,” Kim explained.
“It led many Korean companies to move their factories and other production bases to the ASEAN nations.”
Kim is a retired career diplomat who served as the Korean ambassador to Myanmar from 2011 to 2013 and New Zealand from 2014 to 2017. He taught international trade at Dong-A University as a lecturer from 2018.
“When I was in Myanmar, I felt that the ASEAN countries try to learn from Korea, especially the experience of rapid economic development. The time I was in Myanmar was when the country tried to make the transition to democracy. I have a heavy heart over the Myanmar coup that has been continuing since February, but I believe that the resilient people of Myanmar will come through this eventually,” he said.
Kim noted that the ASEAN is a unique union of nations, as the 10 member states vary in many ways, such as: their political systems, their levels of economic development, their ethnicities, cultures and religions.
“The ASEAN’s slogan, ‘Unity in Diversity,’ shows how each country maintains its individual identity. The ASEAN way is based on a consensus and follows a non-interference principle in internal affairs. Sometimes, such processes take longer to reach a conclusion, but they allow the ASEAN to sustain diversity.”
For instance, the ASEAN has not intervened in the Myanmar coup due to its principle of non-interference.
“Unlike the European Union, in which countries cede some sovereignty for a bigger agenda, the ASEAN is an economic community that fully respects each member state’s sovereignty. The ASEAN way might be slow in decision making, but it allows the ASEAN to embrace 10 countries with different traits,” Kim said.
“Understanding the history and characteristics of the ASEAN member states and the ASEAN way is key to deepening ASEAN-Korea ties in the long term.”
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| Participants at the 8th ASEAN Connectivity Forum speak in this Jan. 19 photo. Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Centre |
The AKC hosts about 20 projects a year in the fields of trade and investment, culture and tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
Among them, Kim picks the ASEAN Connectivity Forum and ASEAN Week as the center’s flagship programs.
The Connectivity Forum is based on the “Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025,” aiming to engage in connectivity projects in the ASEAN, such as transportation and energy, in order to reduce development gaps in infrastructure and logistics.
“We try to navigate what the ASEAN countries want from us. For example, Korea is a leader in the innovative industries and the ASEAN countries want to learn about digitalization and Smart City projects from us. More recently, healthcare emerged as an area of interest, as Korea showed strength in dealing with the pandemic. So we recently held an online seminar on the bio-health sector to cater to those needs,” Kim explained.
The 2021 ASEAN Week, slated for Oct. 5 and 6 at COEX in southern Seoul, features a variety of events to raise awareness on the cultural diversity of the ASEAN in Korea.
“This year we expanded the ASEAN Week event to cover economic and people-to-people exchanges from the previous central theme of culture,” Kim said. “We are hosting the ASEAN Week in conjunction with the New Southern Business Week, co-organized by the Presidential Committee on the New Southern Policy and the Korea International Trade Association, to create synergy in trade and business.”
The main theme of this year’s ASEAN lifestyle exhibition is rice, the soul food of Southeast Asian countries. In addition, there is a mentorship program for ASEAN students in Korea who seek jobs here and a seminar for Korean companies interested in business opportunities in ASEAN countries.
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| ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary-General Kim Hae-yong speaks during a seminar on ASEAN-Korea Tourism at a hotel in Seoul, Sept. 10. Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Centre |
The AKC attempts to reduce the asymmetry in ASEAN-Korea relations, especially the trade imbalance. According to the Korea Customs Service, Korea registered the largest trade surplus of $34.2 billion with the ASEAN members in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the mandates of the AKC is to promote a trade balance between the ASEAN member states and Korea. Korea has a processing trade presence in the ASEAN countries, with many Korean companies having production bases there. I think it is complementary trade, as Korean companies bring in technology to bring out the use of rich resources in Southeast Asia,” Kim said.
“However, from the ASEAN perspective, they certainly see a loss in manufactured goods, so it is reasonable for them to seek ways to introduce competitive products to Korean customers.”
Kim believes that it is important to promote Korea to opinion leaders in the ASEAN so as to upgrade ties.
“Korea is the fifth-largest trading partner of the ASEAN, but according to opinion polls, the people of the ASEAN show more interest in more powerful nations. We have to improve awareness of Korea at the opinion leader level. We have to show them Korea is a responsible international player with consistent policies toward the ASEAN,” Kim said.
“That’s why we established the ASEAN Youth Network in Korea, a community for ASEAN students here, and the Council of ASEAN Professors in Korea. Those who studied in Korea will become opinion leaders when they go back to their homelands, and we expect them to voice favorable thoughts on Korea.”
ASEAN-Korea Centre pursues two-way exchanges
Source: Buhay Kapa PH
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