Busan City and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sign 'Memorandum of Understanding for Regional Economic Development Support and Cooperation' ... Collaboration to Revitalize Regional Economy through Overseas Network Support

Signing Ceremony at 11:50 AM on the 25th, Direct Attendance by Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun and Foreign Minister Park Jin

Economic Trade, Diplomacy, Culture, Public Relations, and International Development Cooperation Supported by the Ministry of For

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun and Foreign Minister Park Jin attended in person to sign the memorandum of understanding.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on "Support and Cooperation for Regional Economic Development" at 11:50 a.m. on the 25th at the Haeundae Paradise Hotel.

At the signing ceremony, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun and Foreign Minister Park Jin personally attended and signed the MOU.

This MOU is one of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' initiatives to achieve the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's six national policy goals, including "an era of local cities where it is good to live anywhere in the Republic of Korea," and it is the first to be signed with a local government, Busan City.

The MOU includes cooperation to revitalize the regional economy by supporting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' overseas network in economic and trade fields such as attracting domestic and foreign advanced strategic industries, as well as in public diplomacy, culture, promotion, and international development cooperation.

The main areas of cooperation are ▲ (Economic and Trade) investment attraction and import/export support, support for overseas expansion and activities of companies located in local governments ▲ (Public Diplomacy, Culture, Promotion) external publicity and support for events hosted by local governments ▲ (International Development Cooperation) discovery and execution of international development cooperation projects, support for inter-agency collaboration necessary for project implementation ▲ Other cooperation areas include attracting and hosting international conferences and events, business trip delegations, support for visits of foreign high-ranking officials invited by local governments, cooperation with overseas local governments, and cooperation with local government overseas offices.

Through this MOU signing, Busan City will be able to receive close support for work through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 167 overseas diplomatic missions.

It is expected to receive systematic assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in strengthening external activity capabilities in areas such as attracting the 2030 Busan World Expo, attracting foreign investment, expanding exports, developing tourism and cultural industries, and strategic promotion of the Busan city brand.

Since the city and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have already established a close cooperative system for overseas negotiation activities in Latin America, Africa, and Pacific island countries by forming One-Team Korea to attract the 2030 Busan World Expo, this MOU signing is expected to have a synergistic effect on future attraction negotiation activities.

Photo of the signing ceremony.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, "Through this agreement, we will be able to closely receive the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' professional and diverse overseas networks, and I am confident that we have laid the foundation for Busan City to become a global hub city," adding, "Furthermore, we expect that Busan City and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will cooperate more organically to achieve good results in attracting the 2030 Busan World Expo, a national mega event that will invigorate the entire southern region over the next 10 years."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognizes that supporting local governments to build proactive preparedness capabilities against new challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, and to actively respond to rapidly changing international situations, is a vital task for national economic development, and is doing its best to support local governments.

As an example, the Ministry has prepared guidelines for supporting local governments' external affairs, establishing an institutional foundation for cooperation between the central government and local governments for regional economic development. It plans to establish a full support system for national balanced development and strengthening regional external competitiveness by reviewing measures such as ▲ benchmarking excellent cases of overseas local government investment attraction ▲ joint training to strengthen diplomatic capabilities of local government officials ▲ promotion of Korean regional publicity projects.

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