The OECD Ministerial Meeting for Science and Technology, which has been held exclusively by a European nation for the past 52 years, will take place on October 19-23 at the Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), South Korea.
S. Korea will make the “OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015/World Science & Technology Forum” the largest-ever event by inviting non-OECD members, i.e. ASEAN member nations, to the meeting.
The OECD ministerial meeting for science and technology has been thus far held only in Paris, where the OECD headquarters is based. S. Korea will become the first non-European host of the meeting, a landmark achievement for the nation’s science sector.
As S. Korea beat Japan to the punch, Japan’s scientific and political circles are said to have been agitated by the news.
S. Korea is currently putting the finishing touches to its preparations for the event, expected to be attended by representatives from 12 international organizations in 57 nations and 46 ministerial-level officials from OECD and ASEAN member nations and heads of international organizations.
Science andTechnology-based Solutions to Global Issues
In order to raise public awareness of S. Korea playing host to the “OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015/World Science & Technology Forum,” the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) has opened a website (www.daejeon-oecd2015.org/kr) dedicated to the OECD meeting and appointed as PR ambassadors popular girl group 2NE1's Ciel and her father Lee Ki-jin, professor of physics at Sogang University.
Thanks to such efforts, an online promotional video, starring Ciel and idol boy group EXO, has garnered many views.
High on the agenda at the meeting are scientific ways to weather a global economic crisis and tackle global issues, such as climate change, international healthcare, water shortages, famine, the outbreak of the MERS virus, etc.
Furthermore, the meeting is aimed at exploring ways to narrow the political, economic gap between developing and developed nations.
As investment in the development of science and technology for addressing such global issues has taken a backseat to other issues, systemic global cooperation is needed.
The OECD meeting for science and technology is expected to serve as a venue, where a new paradigm of science and technology will be set forth that sees science and technology as an avenue to improving the quality of life, expediting job creation, closing the gap between the haves and have-nots and promoting inclusive growth, not solely as a means of speeding up economic growth.
With the OECD meeting less than a month away, the Preparatory Committee of the OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015, operating under the MSIP, had invited nearly 20 diplomats from countries, anticipated to participate in the event, to Daejeon on September 18.
“I hope that ministerial-level officials will join field trips to take a first-hand look at Daejeon’s research and development (R&D) facilities once the OECD meeting kicks off,” said Choi Young-hae, head of the Preparatory Committee.
The OECD ministerial meeting will end with the adoption of a joint declaration, called ‘Daejon Declaration,’ thereby opening a new chapter in S. Korea’s science and technology sector.
The Daejon Declaration, tentatively titled ‘Science Technology Innovation Policy in Era of Globalization and Digitalization,” will set out the future direction of science and technology policy for the next decade.
The domestic science community believes that S. Korea hosting the OECD meeting for science and technology will take the nation’s science diplomacy to new heights.
