Korea to host Rotary convention next year
Rotary President K.R. Ravindran speaks during a press conference at Press Center in Gwanghwamun in Seoul, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Jung Min-ho
Korea will host Rotary International’s annual convention next year, which is expected to attract the most participants ever from the 180 participating countries.
“As a city with a long, rich history and the latest amenities, Seoul is the ideal location for a Rotary convention and a delightful travel destination to explore,” said Rotary President K.R. Ravindran.
The convention will be held from May 28 to June 1 next year at the KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
“When the 107th annual convention comes to this world class city next May, we will bring together more than 50,000 Rotary club members from some 180 countries.”
So far, the biggest Rotary convention was the Osaka event, which was held in 2004 with some 45,000 participants.
Established in 1905, Rotary is an international service organization whose stated mission is to bring together business and professional leaders to tackle the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. There are more than 34,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide.
“We will connect in Korea to share new ideas, make new friends and learn how we can work with our communities to be a gift to the world,” Ravindran said.
Seoul is home to the first Rotary club established in Korea, chartered in 1927. Today, Korea has the world’s fourth largest number of clubs at 1,616 with 62,351 members.
The convention will provide participants with ample opportunities to experience Seoul, including national parks, museums, shopping centers and restaurants, Yun Sang-koo, head of the event’s organizing committee, said.
“This could be a good opportunity to promote Seoul to the world,” he said.
One of the most well-known activities by Rotary is the fight against polio, a highly infectious disease which can result in paralysis or death and affects mainly children under five.
Since 1985, Rotary has contributed more than $1.4 billion (1.6 trillion won) to eradicating polio. Thanks to the global effort, led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Rotary, the number of annual diagnosed cases was reduced to 291 from hundreds of thousands.
This represents a 99.9 percent reduction, though there was a bounce back in some countries with more cases.
“Polio eradication is the top priority of Rotary, and is an issue to which I am personally, deeply committed,” Ravindran said. “Today, more than 2 billion children in 122 countries have been immunized, and polio is close to becoming only the second human disease after smallpox to be banished to our past.”