On June 4, Secretary-General LIM Byung-jin met with Executive Vice Governor ZHANG Yingchun of Hunan province, who was on her visit to Seoul, and exchanged ideas on the concerned issues including the hosting of the Subcommittee on Innovation+.

Ms. Zhang stated that Hunan Province, a core region for China’s national development strategy to propel the rise of central China, is in pursuit of High-quality development initiatives through advanced manufacture industries, opening and reform of inland districts, and innovative science technologies. Then she introduced Hunan province’s top enterprises including SANY HEAVY INDUSTRY CO., LTD and Zoomlion, expressing her hopes to cooperate with other NEAR members not only in the areas of manufacturing and science technology but also in arts and cultural tourism.

Ms. Zhang deeply acknowledged the significant role that NEAR has been playing in promoting exchange and cooperation among Northeast Asia regional governments and hoped to promote Hunan province via NEAR platform. In particular, she requested the active support of the NEAR Secretariat to encourage as many NEAR members and enterprises as possible to participate in the Subcommittee on Innovation+, which is set to take place in October this year.

Mr. Lim thanked for Ms. Zhang’s acknowledgement on the role of NEAR and explained the recent progress that NEAR has made, including the expansion of its membership and the increasing number of participating regions in many of the NEAR events, and expressed his appreciation to Hunan province and other 13 Chinese member regions for their undertakings for NEAR. Also, he said the Subcommittee on Innovation+, which will be held in October this year, is one of the biggest NEAR events for 2024 along with the NEAR High-level Working Committee (September) to be hosted by Liaoning province, the NEAR chair, and the Subcommittee on Energy Cooperation (July) to be hosted by Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, promising the NEAR Secretariat’s full support. In addition, he replied that the Secretariat will do its utmost efforts to promote Hunan province via the NEAR platform and assist the region to have more opportunities of exchange with other NEAR members. 

XING Haiming, Chinese ambassador to South Korea, also took part of the meeting and expressed his interest in and support for the international position and the role of NEAR in promoting inter-regional cooperation of Northeast Asia.