Prime Minister (PM) James Marape acknowledged South Korea as one of Papua New Guinea’s biggest trading partners. He made these remarks at the start of bilateral meetings with the Republic of South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol, during the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul Korea. The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru, Vice Minister for Finance and Implementation John Boito and Vice Minister for Treasury Solen Loifa. Present at the meeting on the Korean side were President Yoon Suk Yeol, the Prime Minister of Korea His Excellency Duck-soo Han and the Minister for Foreign Affairs His Excellency Park Jin. MP Marape said Korea and Papua New Guinea have had healthy bilateral relations since 1976 and the President re-echoed PNG’s own thoughts on wanting to ramp up these existing relations. “We invited them to bring in their business expertise, especially in the space of manufacturing, into our country’s focus of moving into manufacturing in downstream processing, in our Special Economic Zones.” The PNG PM said current trade between both countries stands at USD1.8 Billion. He encouraged more Korean businesses be set up in PNG as well as more trade in PNG products, as PNG makes the move from exporting raw to finished products. Marape while commending Korea for emerging from a poverty-stricken country to one that is now a rising economic powerhouse in the world, indicated to H.E Yoon Suk Yeol that Papua New Guinea will give support to Korea to host the 2030 World Trade Exposition in Busan. “We also commended Korea’s sensitivity to rising sea levels and climate change, and their commitment to using technology and innovation as a means to address the protection of seas and environment. “This complements Papua New Guinea’s own focus on using technology for land reclamation and protecting our small island communities and small island states.” Prime Minister Marape said in that respect, he also indicated that for their focus on the Pacific, they must work with the Pacific Island Forum. He added that PNG must not be viewed as a small island state though because the country’s land mass and population is bigger than other island states. He said as such, the South Korean President, his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister that they must relate with Papua New Guinea through a separate, specific bilateral framework that will embrace government to government, people to people and business to business relations, to fine tune future relations. Prime Minister Marape also asked the President to look at reopening the KOICA Office in Port Moresby and H.E Yoon Suk Yeol did indicate that he will get his officials to look into that. Other matters discussed were the Korean Exim Banks commitment to fund the Wewak and Vanimo Wharf and the Exim Bank’s Soft-Lending facilities that Papua New Guinea can open a credit line to access. At the conclusion of the meeting, Prime Minister Marape extended an official invitation for President Yoon Suk Yeol to visit Papua New Guinea at a time which is mutually convenient.