The fifth meeting of the Korea APEC 2025 Organizing Committee, chaired by Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who also serves as the Minister of Economy and Finance, was held in the Government Complex Seoul on Jan. 22, 2025. APEC Summit will be held at Gyeongju in November 2025. The Summit is expected to be attended by over 20 heads of state, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. (PHOTO: The Ministry of Economy and Finance)
With the Theme of “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow”
The fifth meeting of the Korea APEC 2025 Organizing Committee, chaired by Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who also serves as the Minister of Economy and Finance, was held in the Government Complex Seoul on Jan. 22, 2025.
APEC Summit will be held at the ancient city of Gyeongju located in southeastern South Korea, about 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in November 2025. Gyeongju, one of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations, was the capital of the Silla Dynasty. APEC summit to be hosted in South Korea for the first time in 20 years since its previous one held in the southeastern port city of Busan in 2005.
The Summit is expected to be attended by over 20 heads of state, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Chilean Presidednt Gabriel Boric, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Philippines President Bongbong Marcos, Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee.
At the fifth meeting on Jan. 22, presided over by Acting President Choi Sang-mok for the first time, discussed and reviewed the current preparation status and future plans for the AELM’s infrastructure, business events, cultural programs, etc.
Choi emphasized that the APEC 2025 Korea provides an important opportunity to witness Korea’s elevated international standing and strengthen the trust and support of the global community, as it is one of the largest multilateral diplomatic events hosted in Korea since the G20 Summit in 2010 and the Nuclear Security Summit in 2012.
He urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other relevant ministries, provincial governments, and businesses to communicate and collaborate closely, ensuring the timely and speedy preparations for the AELM and related meetings in the remaining time while maintaining readiness in the face of any domestic or international challenges.
The participants underscored the necessity of seamless preparations for key infrastructure, such as meeting venues and accommodations, as well as the participation of leaders of major economies and prominent global business leaders. The participants also agreed to work in close coordination to ensure the successful hosting of the 2025 APEC KOREA.
Meanwhile, Korea took its first step as the host economy by successfully hosting the Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting (ISOM) in Seoul last December. This year, alongside the AELM in Gyeongju, around 200 meetings at various levels and across diverse sectors will be held nationwide. During the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week (AELW), the CEO Summit and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting, featuring leading global business leaders, will also take place.
Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOMs) and sectoral ministerial meetings will be held in Gyeongju from February to March, Busan in April and August, Jeju in May, and Incheon from July to August, leading up to the AELW, during which the Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting (CSOM), the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the AELM, and business events will be held.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok stres-sed the significance of business events in facilitating meaningful business networks for domestic companies. He further called for active engagement from the private sector, particularly recognizing the leadership of Chairman Chey Tae-won of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Vice Chairman Cho Hyun-sang of HS Hyosung Group in leading the relevant events.
Building on the outcome of the meeting, the government will carry out meticulous preparations for the AELM, which will be hosted for the first time in 20 years in Korea, to ensure that it becomes a magnificent economic and cultural event, driving regional economic cooperation while highlighting Korea’s outstanding culture on the global stage.
Prior to the meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a symposium on the APEC 2025 Korea priorities in Seoul, on Dec. 9, last year. The symposium was the opening event of the APEC 2025 Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting (ISOM), the first APEC meeting to come since Korea’s assumption of the APEC 2025 chairmanship. It brought together nearly 180 participants, including senior officials of APEC member economies and representatives of the APEC Secretariat as well as relevant government agencies and organizations of Korea.
Discussions held on APEC 2025 theme and priorities from diverse perspectives of academia, businesses and international organizations was delivered at the symposium.
The symposium featured welcome remarks by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang In-sun and CEO of KOLON Corporation Lee Kyuho who serves as a Korean member of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). In the ensuing session, APEC 2025 SOM Chair Ambassador Yoon Seong-mee and CEO of Parastar Entertainment Haley Cha each delivered a keynote speech on the theme of APEC 2025. Parastar Entertainment is Korea’s first-ever entertainment agency for talents with disabilities, including athletes, actors and singers, among others.
In her welcome remarks, Vice Minister Kang introduced the theme and priorities of APEC 2025 – “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper.” She also expressed her expectations for the symposium to cover in depth how to address diverse challenges including climate change, emerging technologies, and demographic shifts. She went on to emphasize that Korea, as the chair of APEC 2025, will exert all efforts to successfully hold the Economic Leaders’ Meeting and all other APEC meetings and produce meaningful deliverables in 2025.
In his welcome remarks, Mr. Lee Kyu Ho mentioned that the theme and priorities of APEC 2025 reflect Korea’s pledge to realize sustainable and inclusive prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, which is a common objective for all APEC members.
SOM Chair Yoon Seong-mee commenced her keynote speech with an overview of the APEC 2025 theme and priorities. She also iterated Korea’s commitment to advance towards a sustainable future of the Asia-Pacific region through the realization of the Putrajaya Vision 2040. The Putrajaya Vision 2040, APEC’s long-term vision adopted in its 2020 Economic Leaders’ Meeting, stipulates the direction of APEC cooperation until 2040 through three key drivers – the liberalization of trade and investment, innovative and digital economy, and inclusive and sustainable growth.
Yoon said, “APEC was primarily focused on trade and investment liberalization and regional integration. We are still pursuing these goals, but APEC’s agenda has become much broader.”
“New challenges such as climate chan-ge and the development of technology are calling for collective response from APEC economies. It was against this backdrop that the Putrajaya Vision 2040 expanded APEC’s focus beyond traditional trade and investment to include innovation, digitalization, and sustainable and inclusive growth as the main drivers of economic growth,” she added. “With this in mind, Korea selected ‘Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper’ as the theme and priorities for APEC 2025.
The theme ‘Building a Sustainable Tomorrow’ reflects the aspiration of realizing an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific region as envisioned in the Putrajaya Vision, in the near future.”
Haley Cha highlighted how innovative technology can embrace marginalized groups, citing “Big Ocean,” a K-pop trio with hearing disabilities who debuted this year, as an exemplary case of overcoming difficulties with AI technologies.
The symposium brought together experts from academia from home and abroad, businesses, and international organizations including the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), who discussed the priorities of APEC 2025.
APEC(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore. Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.
Following the success of ASEAN’s series of post-ministerial conferences launched in the mid-1980s, APEC started in 1989, in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; it aimed to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe. Headquartered in Singapore, APEC is recognized as one of the highest-level multilateral blocs and oldest forums in the Asia-Pacific region, and exerts significant global influence.
The heads of government of all APEC members attend an annual APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a famous tradition, followed for most summits, involves the attending leaders dressing in a national costume of the host country. APEC has three official observers: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. APEC’s Host Economy of the Year is considered to be invited in the first place for geographical representation to attend G20 meetings following G20 guidelines.
The initial inspiration for APEC came when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s series of post-ministerial conferences, launched in the mid-1980s, had demonstrated the feasibility and value of regular conferences among ministerial-level representatives of both developed and developing economies. By 1986, the post-ministerial conferences had expanded to embrace 12 members. The developments led Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to believe in the necessity of region-wide co-operation on economic matters. In January 1989, Bob Hawke called for more effective economic co-operation across the Pacific Rim region. This led to the first meeting of APEC in the Australian capital of Canberra in November, chaired by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans. Attended by ministers from twelve countries, the meeting concluded with commitments to hold future annual meetings in Singapore and South Korea. Ten months later, representatives of 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra, Australia, to establish APEC. The APEC Secretariat, based in Singapore, was established to co-ordinate the activities of the organization.★
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