Diplomat hopefuls gather for forum in Incheon ahead of G20 summit
By Kang Shin-who
Staff reporter
A number of youngsters hoping to be diplomats in the future have gathered in Incheon for a symposium to discuss the environment and other global issues ahead of the G20 summit to be held here in November.
More than 100 middle and high school students participated in the “Global Youth International Diplomacy Symposium 2010,” organized by the Korea Times Global Edu, and sponsored by The Korea Times and its sister papers, the Hankook Ilbo, Seoul Economic Daily and Fortune Korea.
The symposium opened Wednesday and will continue through Friday at the Convensia in the free economic zone in Incheon. During the event, participating students are set to touch on five key themes; internationalism, foreign affairs, the environment, along with interracial families and future human resources.
For the symposium, renowned figures have been invited as speakers including Rep. Koh Seung-duk of the Grand National Party, Park Kwang-myung, general director of the G20 summit meeting and Shin Kwang-ryeol of the International Conference of Foreigners Welfare and a diplomat from Egyptian embassy in Korea.
On the first day of the event, Park explained that the upcoming G20 summit conference, scheduled in Seoul, will further boost the brand name of Korea and talked about the agenda that will be discussed in the summit meeting. Park also held a Q&A session and a speech by an Egyptian diplomat followed.
On the second day, the symposium organizer prepared a special program inviting some 30 students from interracial families. During the program, the participants and the invited children discussed how mixed-race children can mingle with Koreans and ways to stem biases and prejudice against them.
The students suggested a variety of possible solutions to cope with problems that many immigrant workers and their wives are facing here.
“I realized that Korea needs a better education and welfare system for mixed-race children in order to help them adapt to life here,” said one of the participating students.
“I better understand children from multi-cultural families and feel like I am becoming closer to them,” said another participant. They also had a program to donate study materials, clothes and toys to the children from interracial families.
Following the session, they talked about environmental issues together with environmentalists. Students viewed related videos and wrote essays on how the world can cooperate to protect the earth from pollution.
On the last day, today, Rep Koh plans to make a speech on future human resources and global leaders.
“Communication and consideration are key words for this event. We hope that all participating students can learn to respect others and efficiently communicate each other and learn how to be considerate to others,” said an official from the event organizer.