Speaker Im met New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley on Thursday to discuss strengthening cooperation between the two councils on urban development, youth and policy exchange
Seoul Metropolitan Council Speaker Im Man-gyun met New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley on Thursday morning to mark the 30th anniversary of the sister-council relationship between the Seoul Metropolitan Council and the NSW Parliament, and to exchange views on the future direction of bilateral exchange and cooperation.
The meeting was arranged at the request of the NSW Governor's office and the NSW Parliament to commemorate three decades of the sister-council partnership. Beazley had attended the 63rd Australia-Japan Business Co-operation Committee meeting in Japan before traveling to South Korea from Tuesday through Saturday, during which she visited the Seoul Metropolitan Council.
Beazley built a long career in law and served as President of the NSW Court of Appeal before taking office as the 39th Governor of New South Wales in 2019. She has also been active in education, youth leadership, human rights and social justice.
The Seoul Metropolitan Council and the NSW Parliament have maintained ties through mutual delegation visits and inter-parliamentary exchanges since establishing their sister-council relationship in 1996. A Seoul Metropolitan Council delegation visited the NSW Parliament in 2023, and an NSW parliamentary delegation visited the Seoul Metropolitan Council in April this year to discuss ways to expand mutual exchange.
At the meeting, Speaker Im stressed the importance of building on the friendship and trust accumulated over the past 30 years and developing inter-parliamentary exchange into more substantive policy cooperation and people-to-people ties going forward.
Beazley said closer policy sharing and cooperation were needed to address common challenges facing major cities, including housing shortages and power supply constraints. Both sides agreed that Seoul and New South Wales share common interests — sustainable urban development, improving residents' quality of life, youth and future generations, and social inclusion — and that parliamentary-level exchange should be expanded accordingly.
"I hope today's meeting marks the beginning of a new 30 years in which the Seoul Metropolitan Council and the NSW Parliament build an even deeper bond of trust," Im said. "I look forward to further activating practical policy exchange that benefits urban policy and residents' lives, and to broadening the scope of our cooperation across diverse fields including youth, culture and education."
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