Intergovernmental Joint Committee between Mongolia and South Korea holds meeting in Seoul
AKIPRESS.COM – The 10th meeting of the Intergovernmental Joint Committee between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea took place in Seoul on October 30, Montsame reported.
The sides noted that relations and cooperation between Mongolia and South Korea are developing across all political, social, and economic sectors, with high-level visits and dialogues actively taking place, and emphasized that the state visit of President of South Korea Lee Jae Myung to Mongolia this year has further consolidated and strengthened the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The parties reaffirmed their commitment to work closely together to turn the agreements reached during this state visit into reality, increase trade and investment and intensify projects and programs being implemented in sectors such as minerals, infrastructure and urban development, and exchanged views on opportunities to further expand and develop cooperation as well as measures being taken to facilitate travel conditions for citizens.
In particular, highlighting that the two sides set a goal to increase bilateral trade turnover to US$1 billion by 2030 in accordance with the Joint Declaration issued during President Lee Jae Myung’s state visit to Mongolia, they expressed consensus on the critical importance of establishing a Mongolia-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
The Mongolian side noted that attention is paid to localizing South Korea’s food and agricultural product quality and safety standards and systems, as well as improving the legal and institutional environment.
The parties agreed to continue focusing on the effective implementation of projects funded by South Korean grants and concessional loans, including the Mongolia-Korea Joint Rare Metals Research Center, Solongo 1, 2, the Bayangol Am residential district construction project, “Ensuring Sustainable Development of Ulaanbaatar City and Supporting Balanced Regional Development in Mongolia”, and “Strengthening Mongolia’s Digital Public Administration by Modernizing the Address Information System”.
They agreed to exchange views and work on new projects and programs to be implemented in accordance with essential sectors and needs in Mongolia.
In connection with the preparation of the feasibility study for the Second National Cancer Center, the two sides agreed that it is appropriate to clearly reflect a cooperation plan until medical management and operations are fully stabilized.
Mongolia and South Korea have cooperated in the environmental sector for many years, and the two sides highly appreciated the decision to continue the 4th phase of the “Green Wall” project.
The parties expressed their commitment to developing practical cooperation within the intergovernmental framework agreement on mitigating climate change, creating opportunities to implement projects and programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They also agreed to continue cooperating in expanding educational and cultural cooperation, supporting Mongolian and Korean language training, and launching the operations of a cultural center.
Within the framework of creating favorable conditions for mutual travel and residence, the sides commended the creation of opportunities to take driver’s license examinations in both Mongolian and Korean, and exchanged progress updates on developing and implementing a joint roadmap to further facilitate travel conditions and launching a consultative mechanism.
The Korean side announced launch of a system to promptly issue electronic group tourist visas for groups of five or more people as well as medical visas. Furthermore, the two countries discussed concluding an intergovernmental consular agreement in the near future and updating the Social Security Agreement established in 2006.
The Korean side noted that extensive participation by key Ministries and agencies from both countries demonstrated the broad scope of bilateral cooperation.
Within the framework of the 10th Joint Committee meeting, consultative meetings were held between the Ministries of Health of Mongolia and South Korea, as well as between their respective immigration agencies. The sides also agreed to organize regular meetings of sectoral consultative mechanisms in areas such as rare metals and the environment later this year.
The 10th meeting of the Joint Committee was co-chaired by Minister of Mongolia and Chief of the Cabinet Secretariat (Head of the Mongolian side) Enkhbayar Battumur and Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea (Head of the Korean side) Kim Jina.
