South Korea's Lee Calls For Green, Free-Trade Asia

PlanetArk 1 Jun 09;

SEOGWIPO - South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak called on east Asian countries on Sunday to boost intra-regional trade and cooperation to tackle climate change.

Lee said ahead of the arrival of government and business leaders from southeast Asian countries that Asia can play a leading role in saving the world from the current economic downturn and climate change.

"Although it has suffered a lot because it had lagged behind in industrialisation over the past century, (Asia) can present a new path for the human race," said Lee, who will host a summit with the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday and Tuesday.

He criticised moves in parts of the world to strengthen trade barriers as a means to mitigate domestic political pressures from the prolonged global economic downturn and called for cooperation to fight protectionism.

Lee said South Korea, the region's fourth-largest economy, and ASEAN will sign an agreement during the summit on boosting investment that will become part of a free trade agreement put in force recently.

He said the free trade and investment agreements would help boost two-way trade between South Korea and ASEAN by more than 50 percent to $150 billion by 2015 from $90.2 billion last year.

Lee flew to the resort island of Jeju hours after police fought with anti-government protesters late on Saturday to break up a rally for former President Roh Moo-hyun, whose suicide a week ago has triggered growing criticism of his successor.

There was no sign of similar protests near the venue for the summit meetings, but anti-aircraft guns and a special anti-chemical warfare vehicle were deployed outside the building amid rising tensions with North Korea.

North Korea, technically still at war with the South since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace agreement, carried out an underground nuclear test, fired short-range missiles, and threatened attack over the past week.

Conservative Lee took office after a landslide victory in December 2007 elections, but has stumbled almost from the start and has struggled to push a sweeping economic reform agenda through parliament, even though his ruling party has a majority.

(Reporting by Yoo Choonsik; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Asean to work with S Korea on green growth
Business Times 2 Jun 09;

They will join forces to research, develop alternative energy

ASEAN leaders yesterday accepted South Korea's proposal to cooperate to push for low-carbon, green economic growth, according to an official statement released here.

Their support came during the first session of the Asean-Korea Commemorative Summit, chaired by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is Asean's current chairman.

The Korean leader, keen for his country to play a more active role on the global stage, is trying to raise Asean-South Korea relations to a new level.

'I believe we are ready to enter the next stage - a new era of green partnership,' he said in a message to Asean leaders who have joined him at the two-day meeting to mark 20 years of Asean-Korea ties.

Observers said that the meeting, which kicked off yesterday, provides a crucial opportunity for the South Korean leader to sell his new diplomatic doctrine - the 'New Asia Initiative'.

Under the initiative - which Mr Lee first unveiled in March during a visit to Indonesia - Korea aims to boost its ties with all Asean states and promote common interests internationally.

The official statement yesterday said that Asean leaders 'expressed enthusiastic support for the idea'.

Through cooperation on green growth, Mr Lee hopes that Asia will take the lead in helping to pave the way for a new and more sustainable global economy.

Participants in a South Korea-Asean economic cooperation forum, also held yesterday, stressed the importance of green growth in overcoming the current economic slowdown and creating new industries and jobs.

Green growth is South Korea's pet project. The country aims to go green to reduce its reliance on imported energy - 97 per cent of its energy needs are now met by imports.

'Korea is making bold investments to develop new sources of clean energy to remain globally competitive,' President Lee said in his message. 'More importantly, with climate change accelerating at such an alarming rate, we can no longer be complacent.'

Climate change is a daunting challenge requiring concerted global efforts, he said. 'It can also be a historic opportunity for promoting cooperation between Korea and Asean. With the right kind of investment and necessary capital, Asean has the potential to help reduce global carbon emissions.'

Mr Lee said that a combination of South Korea's green technology and Asean's 'limitless opportunities in green growth' will move them a step closer to 'realising our common vision of creating low-carbon smart cities'.

The Korean leader sees his country and Asean joining forces to research and develop alternative energy sources. They can also explore forestation projects, which he said will play a pivotal role in tackling global warming.

'Through these and much more, Korea and Asean can become the world's pioneering leaders,' he said. 'We can become the world's green research hub that introduces innovations and turns green ideas into reality.'

South Korea, ASEAN sign sweeping free trade pact
Martin Abbugao, AFP Google News 2 Jun 09;

SEOGWIPO, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea and ASEAN ompleted a free trade agreement covering almost 650 million people and vowing to fight protectionism and work to tackle the global economic crisis.

The leaders of South Korea and the group of 10 Southeast Asian nations ended a two-day summit pledging further cooperation to boost Asia's financial sector by supporting the development of a stronger regional bond market.

In an end-of-summit statement, they called for the speedy implementation of a 120-billion dollar emergency currency pool agreed last month with China and Japan to help East Asian economies fight financial stress.

They also called for the setting up of an "independent surveillance unit" to detect signs of future financial crises before they hit the region and to assess countries wanting to draw from the currency pool.

In an immediate move to strengthen economic ties, Seoul and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an agreement to complete a free trade pact they hope will nearly double trade to 150 billion dollars by 2015.

The investment accord is the final plank of a comprehensive pact that also covers trade in goods and services. The trade in goods pact went into effect in 2007 and the services agreement last month after talks began in 2005.

In 2008 two-way trade was worth 90.2 billion dollars, compared with 46.4 billion in 2004.

In response to the global economic downturn, they reaffirmed their "commitment to do our outmost to stimulate economic growth in the region and stand firm against protectionism," according to the statement.

"We agreed to take proactive and decisive policy actions to restore market confidence and ensure continued financial stability to promote sustainable regional economic growth."

They said strengthening the Asian bond market will allow the region's massive savings to be used to fund development projects and spur growth.

There was also a pledge to expand cooperation in the energy sector "in the light of volatile energy prices, climate change and the need for environmental protection."

South Korea is pushing to further increase its presence and influence in ASEAN, which has a combined population of almost 600 million and gross domestic product of around 1.3 trillion dollars.

It includes oil producers like Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Analysts said Seoul's neighbours China and Japan are already ahead in engaging the regional bloc.

South Korea's finance ministry said the country sees ASEAN "as an export market which can offset sluggish markets in developed countries," especially after the global financial crisis.

Apart from exports, ASEAN officials say South Korean companies are expected to benefit from infrastructure spending, which is a major part of government stimulus packages in Southeast Asia.

Seoul will also have better access to the region's massive wealth in natural resources including timber, rubber, oil and gas.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told AFP in an interview on Monday that her country exports 4-5 billion dollars worth of natural gas to South Korea annually.

It also buys food and fish products as well as footwear, textiles and paper and pulp from Indonesia, she said.

"The investment deal aims to provide protection for investments and investors," South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.

The ministry expects the agreement will go into effect within a year.