Chairman of Global Saemaul Forum Choi Wae-chul meets with President of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration
Discussions on constructing Saemaul Undong hub in Central and South America
Pledge to recommend elites from Central and South America to Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul
[August 10, 2016]
<The Global Saemaul Forum and YU teamed up with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and pledged to cooperate for the global Saemaul Undong and local development in Central and South America>
The Global Saemaul Forum (Chairman Choi Wae-chul) and YU joined hands with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and agreed to actively pursue the construction of a foundation for the global Saemaul Undong and regional development for emerging countries in Central and South America.
On the 9th in Seoul, Global Saemaul Forum Chairman Choi Wae-chul (Director of YU Park Chung Hee met with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (hereinafter CABEI) President Nick Rischbieth who visited Korea and agreed to cooperate for the economic development of Central and South America and for the development of local communities such as rural areas.
CABEI is the largest financial institute in Central and South America and was founded in 1960 for the balanced social and economic development of member nations and to promote regional economic integration. Its headquarters is based in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and is comprised of a total of 12 nations such as seven from Central America including Honduras and five outer region nations such as Argentina, Columbia and Taiwan.
While meeting with Mr. Choi Wae-chul, Mr. Rischbieth said, "Up until now, CABEI mainly focused on its role as a commercial bank, but it is now making more active attempts to fulfill its role as a development bank that supports regional development of emerging nations in Central and South America." He asked that the Global Saemaul Forum and YU play a bigger role in the new development projects of CABEI in the future. He also expressed considerable understanding and interest in Korea's Saemaul Undong and stated with emphasis, "Korea's development experience such as the Saemaul Undong will be very helpful to the underdeveloped countries of Central America.
Mr. Choi responded, "Sharing the successful Saemaul Undong experiences of Korea is Korea's mission to the international community," and added, "We will cooperate closely with CABEI to spread the Saemaul development program to Central America."
On this day, Mr. Choi requested that CABEI participated in the international NGO, Global Saemaul Development Network (GSDN), which Mr. Rischbieth said that we would positively review this. GSDN was established in September of last year to push forward with Saemaul development cooperation programs for emerging nations and to overcome poverty in the global community, and it is currently headed by Mr. Choi Wae-chul as its chairman. Mr. Choi also invited Mr. Rischbieth to the '2017 Global Saemaul Forum' scheduled for June of next year, and Mr. Rischbieth happily accepted the invitation.
Furthermore, Mr. Rischbieth also welcomed Mr. Choi's request to recommend young talents such as elite public employees of Central America to the YU Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul (Dean Park Seung-woo), and expressed his appreciation. There are currently over 230 students from 48 countries around the world enrolled at the Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul, but compared to Asia, Africa and South America, there are few students from Central America. It is expected that through this meeting with CABEI, more students from Central will come study at YU.
At this meeting between Mr. Choi and Mr. Rischbieth were present CABEI CFO Hernan Danery, International Relations Bureau Director Salvador Sacasa, CABEI Costa Rica Secretary General Mauricio Chacon, and three other secretary generals of three countries, for a total of six senior officials from CABEI, while from YU were present Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul Dean Park Seung-woo and Global Saemaul Development Network (GSDN) Secretary General Kim Gi-soo (YU professor of business administration).
