President bares plans to operate ASEM

President Kim Dae-Jung will endeavor to build a framework for cooperation between Asian and European regions at the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Meeting (ASEM) opening on Friday, presidential spokesman Park Joon-Young said Wednesday.

In a press briefing, the spokesman said that President Kim, as chairman of the Seoul conference, will place emphasis on consolidating the foundation for comprehensive Eurasian cooperation. In particular, he will seek to establish organizations commissioned with regularizing inter-regional cooperation in the political, security, and economic fields, he said.

Specifically, the President is expected to positively promote mutual cooperation in the following sectors: the expansion of trade and investment, linking of Eurasian information networks and promotion of e-commerce, the prevention of foreign exchange crises and academic and cultural exchanges.

To this end, the President will take the initiative in creating grounds for promoting the establishment of a finance ministers' conference, businessmen's forum, youth association and studies group for the development of the ASEM.