Gimpo city officials hold a formal meeting with a delegation from the Cambodian Embassy in South Korea at the city hall conference room Monday to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation. [Gimpo City]
Gimpo city officials hold a formal meeting with a delegation from the Cambodian Embassy in South Korea at the city hall conference room Monday to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation. [Gimpo City]

Gimpo city officials met with a delegation from the Cambodian Embassy in South Korea to discuss improving living conditions for foreign workers in the city and expanding practical economic cooperation between the two regions.

Gimpo Mayor Lee Ki-hyung received Cambodian Ambassador to South Korea Khuon Phon Rattanak and four other delegation members at the city hall conference room Monday for a formal meeting aimed at strengthening friendly cooperation.

The two sides focused their discussions on administrative and welfare support measures for the approximately 1,900 Cambodian residents and workers active in local industrial sites.

They also reviewed the results of existing official development assistance projects, including the donation of decommissioned fire vehicles, and explored the possibility of further exchanges in disaster prevention and public safety.

The meeting took on added significance as both sides moved toward concrete discussions on jumpstarting substantive economic exchanges ahead of the 30th anniversary of the normalization of South Korea-Cambodia diplomatic ties in 2027.

Ambassador Khuon emphasized the symbolic importance of the 30th anniversary next year and formally requested that Gimpo send a city delegation — including local business and economic figures — to visit Cambodia.

The embassy pledged full support for any such visit, promising to arrange meetings with senior Cambodian government officials, business sessions with promising local companies, and connections with Korean community networks in the country.

"It will be a real opportunity for Gimpo's businesses — a city home to more than 8,000 manufacturing companies — to enter the high-growth Cambodian market," Mayor Lee said. "We will give serious consideration to dispatching an economic mission and making an on-site visit, weighing both the economic benefits and the symbolic significance."


gilbert@heraldcorp.com