The Ministry of the Interior and Safety (Minister Lee Sang-min) hosted a “Global Saemaul Undong Cooperation Seminar” attended by diplomatic missions of Saemaul Undong partner countries jointly with Korea Saemaul Undong Center (President Yum Hong-Chul) at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on July 14.

This seminar was attended by ambassadors of about 20 countries to the Republic of Korea, including Timor-Leste Ambassador to Korea Gregorio Jose da Conceicao Ferreira de Sousa, as well as the President of Yeungnam University, Choi Oe-chool, and Professor Lee Jae-hoon from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to seek ways for cooperation among countries to spread the Saemaul Undong.

This event, held for the first time this year, serves as a forum to share the success stories and know-how of Saemaul Undong in the Saemaul Undong Global League’s 46 member countries, as well as to lay out a measure for the development of Saemaul Undong to achieve poverty eradication and sustainable development in the international community.

The Saemaul Undong Global League (SGL) is a non-governmental organization founded in 2016 for solidarity and cooperation among countries promoting the Saemaul Undong, significantly contributing to the localization and self-sustaining spread of Saemaul Undong. Today’s seminar kicked off with a keynote lecture on the topic of “The Direction for Sustainable Saemaul Undong Development” by President Choi Oe-chool of Yeungnam University. It was followed by presentations on domestic cases under the theme of “A New Challenge, A Community Worth Living,” the successful cases of pilot villages in Honduras and Papua New Guinea, and a discussion on the future direction of the global Saemaul Undong.

The Saemaul Undong has spread overseas in earnest since 2010, in which the Republic of Korea became a formal member nation of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The UN and OECD evaluated the Saemaul Undong as a new rural development paradigm for developing countries in the 21st century, capturing the attention of the international community.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has provided training to about 10,000 people from 74 countries since 2009 to cultivate Saemaul leaders and created 80 pilot villages in 20 countries in Asia (40 in 9 countries), Africa (31 in 8 countries) and Latin America (8 in 2 countries), enormously contributing to improving the village environment and increasing the income of residents.

Timor-Leste Ambassador to Korea Gregorio de Sousa announced that Timor-Leste is successfully promoting environmental improvement and income-increasing projects such as water supply improvement and poultry farming projects through Saemaul Undong. “I hope South Korea’s Saemaul Undong will take firm root as a regional development model not only in Timor-Leste but also in other developing countries,” he said.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, in his congratulatory speech, announced that “Saemaul Undong is not just a rural development movement, but a community movement that generates social capital.” and added that “we will contribute to eradicating poverty and bringing prosperity globally by spreading the spirit of Saemaul Undong, which has been the foundation of South Korea’s remarkable economic development.”