Public Diplomacy Committee Confirms Comprehensive Public Diplomacy Implementation Plan for Next Year

Selected 14 Outstanding Cases of Public Diplomacy in 2020, Presentation of Best Practices

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The 4th meeting of the Intergovernmental Public Diplomacy Coordination Committee, established under the Public Diplomacy Act, was held on the 21st via video conference, chaired by Lee Tae-ho, the 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting was attended by representatives from 10 central government ministries including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Unification, as well as government members from the Office for Government Policy Coordination and 9 local governments. They reviewed and approved the comprehensive public diplomacy implementation plan for next year and outstanding public diplomacy cases from the previous year, and discussed the inter-ministerial COVID-19 response public diplomacy achievements and future plans.

In his opening remarks, Vice Minister Lee Tae-ho acknowledged that despite unexpected restrictions and challenges across public diplomacy activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaningful achievements were made in the field of public diplomacy over the past year thanks to the proactive responses of participating institutions. He encouraged the ministries and local governments that have devoted significant efforts to carrying out public diplomacy projects.

Vice Minister Lee evaluated that many institutions swiftly adapted their public diplomacy project implementation methods to non-face-to-face formats, shared Korea’s quarantine experiences with the international community through means such as providing quarantine supplies and hosting webinars, and particularly noted that collaboration among related agencies was enhanced during the COVID-19 response public diplomacy efforts.

At this meeting, the committee reviewed and finalized the '2021 Comprehensive Public Diplomacy Implementation Plan,' which integrates the implementation plans of 17 central ministries and 17 metropolitan cities and provinces. In response to the changed public diplomacy environment due to COVID-19, the plan focuses on four key strategic priorities: mainstreaming digital public diplomacy; strengthening cultural, knowledge, and policy public diplomacy and diversifying themes in preparation for the non-face-to-face era; contributing to the promotion of solidarity and inclusion in the international community; and enhancing collaboration and expanding the scope in the public diplomacy sector.

The committee selected a total of 14 outstanding public diplomacy cases from 2020 through evaluations by public diplomacy civilian committee members and external experts, covering projects by central ministries, local governments, and overseas diplomatic missions, and held presentations of the exemplary cases.

The Consulate General in Shanghai was selected as the best case by activating non-face-to-face public diplomacy during the COVID-19 situation, establishing the ‘On Shanghai’ studio within the consulate, and actively producing digital content linked with local influencers through projects such as the SNS Korean food promotion week. The Embassy in Canada was recognized as an outstanding case for contributing to the cultivation of pro-Korean professionals and the spread of Korean culture by establishing Korea language minor courses at Carleton University in Ottawa for the first time.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs received the ‘Best Collaboration Award’ by effectively promoting Korean agricultural products and food culture through projects such as non-face-to-face meetings, real-time Korean food promotion using local influencers, and delivering lunch boxes and immunity-boosting foods to COVID-19 medical staff and key personnel in cooperation with overseas diplomatic missions.

Following this, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs received the ‘Best Collaboration Award’ for meaningful achievements such as delivering one million masks to UN war veterans in 22 countries through intergovernmental cooperation during the COVID-19 situation, with extensive coverage in domestic and overseas local media. Chungcheongnam-do Province won the ‘Best Creativity Award’ for its achievements in conducting non-face-to-face projects linking the Boryeong Mud Festival and K-pop, including producing joint online content with West Java Province in Indonesia and broadcasting high school dance performances of Korean K-pop in Indonesia.

Daegu Metropolitan City received the ‘Best Collaboration Award’ by effectively sharing Korea’s COVID-19 response experience through efforts such as producing the COVID-19 quarantine experience casebook titled 'Overcoming COVID-19 in Daegu: The path nobody taught us' in six languages and distributing it to 65 locations worldwide including international organizations, foreign diplomatic corps in Korea, and sister cities.

Meanwhile, attendees shared and exchanged opinions on the COVID-19 response public diplomacy achievements and plans for next year, considering the possibility that the COVID-19 situation may continue until a certain point next year as it did this year. They agreed to actively promote creative non-face-to-face projects across various fields including education, science, diplomacy, unification, culture, health security, and women to ensure the smooth execution of public diplomacy despite the pandemic.

Furthermore, in the context of prolonged COVID-19 and the contraction of international cooperation, they decided to continue sending messages of solidarity and inclusion among nations and diversify public diplomacy projects to provide assistance to vulnerable countries and groups.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.