MFA Press Statement: Bilateral visit by President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-Bak to Singapore 4-5 June 2010

President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak will be making a bilateral visit to Singapore from 4-5 June 2010. President Lee's visit is in conjunction with the Shangri-la Dialogue where he will be delivering the keynote speech. Besides attending the Shangri-la Dialogue, President Lee will also meet and be hosted to lunch by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as well as receive a call by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

PM and President Lee will also witness the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs). The first is an MOU between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korea International Cooperation Agency on an enhanced framework to expand joint developmental assistance to developing countries. The second is an MOU on Safety of Pharmaceutical Products, Cosmetics and Medical Devices between the Health Sciences Authority and the Korea Food and Drug Administration.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
3 JUNE 2010

ANNEX A

SINGAPORE-KOREA COMPREHENSIVE JOINT DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION PARTNERSHIP

Singapore and the Republic of Korea will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Singapore-Korea Comprehensive Joint Development Cooperation Partnership on 5 June 2010 at the Istana. Mr Peter Ho, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Park Dae-won, President of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), will sign the MOU on behalf of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and KOICA respectively. The signing will be witnessed by the Singapore Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong and ROK President Lee Myung-bak.

2 This MOU builds on the achievements of the MOU between the Technical Cooperation Directorate of the Singapore MFA and KOICA signed on 10 November 1993, under which Singapore and ROK have been providing joint technical assistance to Asia Pacific developing countries under the framework of the Singapore-Republic of Korea Third Country Training Programme. To date, over 1000 government officials from countries in the Asia Pacific have benefited from capacity building programmes in diverse fields like tourism, trade, IT and environment.

3 The Singapore-Korea Comprehensive Joint Development Cooperation Partnership is an enhanced framework, under which Singapore and ROK will significantly expand their developmental assistance to developing countries in four areas, i.e. (i) launching a joint flagship short senior executive programme in public policy for bright young senior government officials; (ii) extending the geographical reach of our joint programmes to cover the Middle East and Africa; (iii) offering training in new fields, including green growth and public governance; and (iv) increasing the number of training places in our programmes, thus providing more training opportunities for Asia Pacific developing countries. The programmes of the Singapore-Korea Comprehensive Joint Development Cooperation Partnership are sponsored by KOICA and the Singapore MFA under the Singapore Cooperation Programme.

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ANNEX B

About the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP)

Singapore's technical assistance programme is based on the training and development of human resource in competencies useful to developing countries. As a country whose only resource is its people, Singapore believes that human resource development is vital for economic and social progress. Through the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP), Singapore shares its development experiences with other developing countries.

2 Established in 1992, the SCP brought together the various technical assistance programmes offered by Singapore under a single framework. Over the years, the range of SCP activities has expanded steadily to cater to the training needs of developing countries. To date, Singapore has organised training courses and study visits for over 69,000 participants from 169 countries around the globe.

3 A key feature of the SCP is the Third Country Training Programme (TCTP), under which Singapore collaborates with other developmental partners, i.e. developed countries, international organisations and non-government organisations, to provide joint technical assistance to developing countries. This collaborative framework leverages on the expertise and resources of both development partners to provide high quality capacity building programmes targeted at the specific training needs of developing countries. To date, Singapore has established TCTPs with more than 30 international development partners, including the Republic of Korea.

4 More details are available on the Singapore Cooperation Programme Website at www.scp.gov.sg.
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