Environmental Ministers agrees on actions to follow-up on Korea-China Summit talks

After the summit meeting between the two heads of state of Korea and China on July 7, 2003, Minister Han and Minister Xie met in State Environmental Protection Administration of PRC to discusss follow-up actions from the summit talk.

The agreed actions include annual hosting of the "Korea-China Environmental Industry Investment Forum" to promote industry exchange between the two countries. The first forum of the series will be held in December 15-17 in Beijing.

Following the 5th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting among China, Japan and Korea to be held in Beijing on 1-2 November 2003, a special session on regional sandstorm prevention will be held. For this special session, invitation will be made for Mongolia and North Korea.

Other items of agreed actions include:
- Take concrete steps to develop 1-2 flagship projects on environmental project using the Korea's Economnic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
- Invite Chinese experts for short and long training programs to promote human exchange. First of these programs will begin around November 2003.
- Promote Chinese participation for the "Next-Generation Environmental Technology Development Projects" funded by the Korean government.
- Facilitate information-sharing in sandstorm monitoring and survey, and promote joint studies.
- China also expressed their support for the hosting of 8th special session of UNEP Governing Council to be held in Jeju Island, Korea on 29-31 March 2003.

After the meeting, the two countries signed two memorandums of understanding, one on general cooperation and the other on environmental industry cooperation.