As part of its effort to promote a long-term growth, the NEAR Secretariat gathered written opinions from the member regions regarding the amendment of the NEAR Charter to introduce special membership system, seeking to accept local governments and organizations with a significant contribution to the development of NEAR as its special members. Out of a total of 81 member regions, the amendment was approved with a clear majority of 75 agreements, 1 disagreement, and 3 non-responses, excluding 2 North Korean members.

The Secretariat will be receiving special membership application from local governments and organizations with great contribution to NEAR or with potentiality. The received applications for special membership will be formally voted on at the 14^th NEAR High-Level Working Committee in the presence of the regular/associate members and the applicants, scheduled to be held in Liaoning, China, in the latter half of this year.