Mayor Park Hyung-jun Meets King and Prime Minister of Lesotho to Request Support for 2030 Busan World Expo Bid

President Park Hyung-jun's Special Envoy Tour of Three African Countries

Mayor Park Hyung-jun, appointed as a special presidential envoy and candidate city mayor for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid, embarked on a tour of three African countries, first visiting the Kingdom of Lesotho.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun, appointed as a special presidential envoy, is meeting with the King of Lesotho.

On the 24th local time, Special Envoy Park met with King Letsie III of Lesotho, delivering a letter from President Yoon Suk-yeol, requesting support for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid, and informing that the Korean government recently decided to support Lesotho in areas such as vocational training centers, educational environment improvement, and forestation.

King Letsie evaluated Korea as a long-standing ally and cooperative partner of Lesotho and expressed hope that this support would contribute to Lesotho’s future development.

Special Envoy Park also met with Prime Minister Mat?ekha of Lesotho, a key decision-maker supporting the 2030 World Expo bid, conveying President Yoon’s request for support and an invitation to the Korea-Africa Special Summit to be held in Korea in 2024.

They held broad and in-depth discussions on comprehensive and practical cooperation projects in various fields, including the improvement of Lesotho’s long-awaited ‘Moshoeshoe International Airport,’ manufacturing sectors such as footwear and textiles, agriculture including agro-processing, technological innovation in information and communications, culture, and a customs administration master plan.

Notably, Prime Minister Mat?ekha attended the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Transport, and key officials from related ministries.

Special Envoy Park also held separate in-depth talks with Foreign Minister Mpotjoane and Finance Minister Matlani.

Meeting with the Minister of Finance of Lesotho.

Special Envoy Park held a roundtable meeting with Korean and Lesotho businesspeople. In his keynote speech, he urged the role of businesspeople in enhancing practical cooperation between the two countries and introduced plans to prepare the 2030 Busan World Expo in a way that also benefits practical cooperation between companies of both nations, requesting their interest and support.

He also held a separate press conference with Lesotho National Broadcasting Service (LNBS) to promote the 2030 Busan World Expo and express the will to strengthen cooperation between Korea and the Kingdom of Lesotho.

The contents of the keynote speech and the press conference were broadcast in detail during the main news hours that evening, raising awareness within Lesotho about cooperation with the Republic of Korea and contributing to the spread of support for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid.

That same evening, a roundtable was held with Korean businesspeople operating not only in Lesotho but also in neighboring South Africa and Botswana, listening to their current activities and challenges, and urging their continued interest and support for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid.

This special presidential envoy delegation presented a new Korean-style development cooperation negotiation model specialized in implementing concrete and substantial cooperation projects to secure supporting countries by more specifically and solidly executing the strategic visits to key negotiation countries initiated last year.

They paid full attention to the composition of the delegation and preparation of consultations, keeping in mind the cooperation fields and projects of highest priority to the target countries, focusing on producing cooperation outcomes that bring mutual benefits to both countries in the mid to long term.

To this end, the special presidential envoy delegation formed a “One Team Korea” centered on Mayor Park Hyung-jun of Busan, including related Korean institutions such as Busan City, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2030 Busan World Expo Bid Support Group, embassy, Korea Airports Corporation, Export-Import Bank, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Samsung Electronics, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and Korean businesspeople stationed overseas, working closely together.

A high-ranking Lesotho official highly evaluated this as one of the very few occasions when such a large foreign delegation visited and held substantive consultations, expressing great expectations for enhancing friendly cooperation with Korea.

As a result, the special presidential envoy delegation confirmed that reflecting the highest priority interests of the counterpart country, the carefully planned and prepared customized delegation composition and activities helped discover and promote practical cooperation projects beneficial to the mutual interests of both countries and contributed to expanding the support base for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid.

Alongside this customized envoy visit, the B2B roundtable held on the 24th was the first large-scale direct consultation event between Korean and Lesotho businesspeople, also evaluated as laying the foundation for enhancing practical cooperation between the two countries in the future.

Lesotho Investment Presentation and Business-to-Business (B2B) Meeting.

This time, our special envoy delegation was evaluated to have gained a comparative advantage over other competitors by spreading support and consensus within Lesotho for customized joint cooperation centered on the Busan Initiative.

Special Envoy Park emphasized to King Letsie III and other top Lesotho officials that “the 2030 Busan World Expo can become a solution platform that reflects Lesotho’s specialized development and growth needs through the ‘Busan Initiative,’ which is based on Korea’s unique experiences and know-how accumulated during its development from a developing to a developed country, and can respond more efficiently and practically to global common crises and challenges such as food, energy, and climate change.”

In an interview with Lesotho National Broadcasting Service, Special Envoy Park stated, “For trust to be formed between Korea and Lesotho, it is important to develop a practical and mutually beneficial cooperative relationship based on long-term interests rather than short-term gains,” adding, “Taking this tour with the customized delegation as an opportunity, we will solidify practical cooperation between the two countries, gain strong trust from Lesotho toward Korea, and secure support for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid.”

Mayor Park Hyung-jun is touring three African countries ? the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of South Africa, and Angola ? as a special presidential envoy from February 22 to March 3 to conduct negotiations and promotional activities for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid.

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