AKCF Presents its Annual Report 2023 for Transparency, Accountability and Efficient Management

Jakarta, 26 August 2024 -  ASEAN-Korea Programme Management Team (AKPMT), together with the  Mission of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to ASEAN, organised a special event launching the ‘ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF) Annual Report 2023’ at ASEAN Hall, ASEAN Secretariat on 26 August 2024.

In the presence of H.E. Nararya Seoprapto, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs, the Permanent Representatives from ASEAN Member States and Timor Lester, diplomatic representatives from various Dialogue Partner Missions to ASEAN, and staff from ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN entities, the AKCF Annual Report 2023 was unveiled to provide a detailed overview of the status of the AKCF and highlight activities and achievements of its ongoing projects in 2023.

In the opening remarks, H.E. Ambassador Lee Jang-keun of ROK stated that the AKCF Annual Report and its launching event aimed to ensure transparency, accountability, and efficiency of the AKCF to the key stakeholders. Ambassador Lee also highlighted the ROK’s strong commitment to doubling the annual contribution to AKCF to USD 32 million by 2027 under the KASI (Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative) as a regional policy tailored to ASEAN.

In a pre-recorded speech, H.E. Dr Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN, expressed his appreciation to the ROK Mission to ASEAN and AKPMT for their unwavering commitment to strengthening ASEAN-ROK partnerships. He emphasised the dynamic and substantive ASEAN-ROK relations over the past 35 years and the AKCF’s remarkable role in advancing the ASEAN-ROK collaboration and supporting ASEAN community building and integration efforts in key cooperation areas.

H.E. Phantipha Iamsudha Ekarohit, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Thailand to ASEAN, Country Coordinator for ASEAN-ROK Dialogue Relations, complimented the AKCF Annual Report 2023 as a good reference for encapsulating in-depth ASEAN-ROK cooperation and moving forward in ASEAN-ROK relations. In congratulatory remarks, she highly stressed that the AKCF projects have contributed to improving the lives of ASEAN people and leading ASEAN to prosperity and stability, and furthermore, she looked forward to closer ASEAN-ROK cooperation for the next three years in the capacity of country coordinator for ASEAN-ROK dialogue relations.

Mr. Sangmin Lee, Team Leader of AKPMT, made a briefing on the status and way forward of the AKCF, as well as highlighting and updating the achievements and milestones of diverse AKCF projects across its priority areas such as Education & Training, Culture & Tourism, Economic Resilience, Environment, Peach, Safety and Connectivity. In the follow-up to Mr. Lee’s briefing, Dr Jungin Jo, Executive Director of Asia Pacific Women’s Information Network Center (APWINC), the implementing agency of the IDEAS (Increasing Digital Skills and E-Commers for ASEAN Women MSMEs) project, provided vivid success stories of the participants of the AKCF-sponsored project, which is aiming to foster more than 4,000 ASEAN women entrepreneurs with digital capability.

The launching event at the ASEAN Secretariat was a unique occasion in which AKCF’s milestones and future direction were presented to its key stakeholders. Coinciding with the 35^th anniversary of ASEAN-ROK Dialogue Relations in 2024, ASEAN and ROK are working toward the Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships (CSP), the highest level of partnership between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners. AKCF will remain crucial in ensuring that the CSP will be meaningful, substantive, and mutually beneficial for ASEAN and ROK.

For more information of the AKCF Annual Report 2023 or AKCF, please contact us at akpmt@akpmt.org