Acting President Mohamed Khaled Khiari,
Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson,
Director-General Irina Bokova,
Secretary-General Taleb-Ritai
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today’s High Level Debate on Culture and Sustainable Development is taking place at a very timely and significant juncture. In this regard, I am pleased to speak before you on behalf of the people and the government of the Republic of Korea. I would like to thank the organizers of this debate.

First and foremost, today’s debate is a manifestation of the efforts made by the United Nations and UNESCO to reflect the inter-connectivity between culture and sustainable development in ongoing discussions on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Post-2015 development agenda which are gaining momentum.

As many of us would agree, culture has remained on the fringe thus far within the development discourse, for reasons of what I would call “a tepidity against culture.”

Now, however, we are beginning to see such tepidity melting away thanks to the insightful leadership of many people, among others, Director General Bokova. She has been a relentless champion of the important role that culture can play in our ongoing work on development.

Indeed, what was once an unclear linkage – the relationship between culture and development – has now come to be seen as a necessary and indivisible bond. Culture is now recognized as both an enabler and driver of sustainable development. This was the conclusion arrived at through the previous High-level Meeting that took place in June, as well as UN General Assembly resolution 68/223, adopted in December of last year.

It is my earnest hope that today’s meeting will serve as a milestone to incorporate the important function of culture in development within ongoing discussions on the SDG.

In this vein, the international community is increasingly pursuing tailor-made approaches to development as well as a people-centered vision that enables more serious consideration of culture. Against this backdrop, Korea recently joined the Group of Friends on Culture and Development for the SDG and Post-2015 development agenda.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to share with you some of Korea’s experiences with culture and development, as I believe they may shed some light on our discussion today.

Mr. President,

Korea’s economic success during the latter part of the 20th century is commonly known as “the Miracle of the Han River.” Although there are many analyses on the causes of such a miracle, the one element that is often overlooked is the role that culture played in Korea’s path to economic growth.

Over the span of Korea’s 5,000-year history, the vision to serve for the benefit of all mankind, which we call “Hongik Ingan” in Korean, was an important facet of cultural heritage that has been passed down many generations. Such a cultural inheritance was preserved even through the times of colonial exploitation and the Korean War, serving as the spiritual beacon that illuminated the path toward post-war reconstruction and economic take-off.

More than anything else, Korea’s culture that reveres education and knowledge allowed Korea to place the highest priority on developing human resources. Such fervor for education supplied an ample amount of high quality labor force in a small country with scarce natural resources.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to discuss this point further in depth on the occasion of World Education Forum to be held in Korea next year.

Another area of contribution that culture has made in Korea is eradicating poverty. Korea’s traditional cooperative culture played an important role in Korea’s rural development movement called “Saemaul Undong” in Korean. It transformed Korea’s traditional farming communities into the modern ones through a “can-do spirit” and a culture of ownership.

Furthermore, there was a big paradigm shift on the relationship between culture and economic development with the inauguration of the new government in Korea last year.

Korea’s new government has set out a goal to achieve “the Second Miracle of the Han River.” To this end, it has formulated the policies of “creative economy” and “cultural enrichment,” as the two engines that will propel Korea into the next phase of its economic take-off.

The notion of creative economy stems from the realization that if “information” was the keyword that captured the essence of last century, “creativity” will be the keyword that will define the next 100 years.

Creative economy, together with information technology, is now generating significant added value and simultaneously contributing to the creation of new jobs in Korea in the cultural industries of film, music, tourism, fashion, and broadcasting. Today, Korea is the world’s seventh largest contents producer and consumer. Korea’s trendy culture called “Hallyu” or the Korean Wave, enjoyed by so many people around the world is also a product of such cultural tradition.

Last but not least, Korea believes that every country has its own rich cultural resources and unique creativity to be tapped into for development. In this light, high emphasis on the expansion of cultural diversity and the preservation of cultural heritage is increasingly becoming a trait that characterizes Korea’s development cooperation programs.

As can be seen in projects like the construction of a cultural center in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan, Korea is pursuing a tailor-made development cooperation strategy that takes full account of the culture and identity of its partners around the world.

Mr. President,

As we are moving toward the final submission of SDG report by August of this year, the task before us today is to gather our collective wisdom to find ways in which culture can make meaningful contributions towards the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social, and environmental.

For this reason, Korea stands by all ongoing efforts to incorporate culture as a cross-cutting issue within the post-2015 development agenda.

In particular, Korea wishes to see culture included as targets in the focus areas identified by the SDG Open Working Group such as poverty eradication, education, employment and decent work for all, sustainable cities and human settlements, sustainable consumption and production, and peaceful and non-violent cities.

The Constitution of UNESCO provides that “that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”

In this connection, it is my sincere belief that culture will continue to aid in construction of the defences of peace. A genuine peace is not possible without a sustainable development, and culture is an integral part of a sustainable development.

I hope what comes out of today’s discussion will go down in history as the turning point of expanding the horizon of sustainable and inclusive development and genuine peace through culture.

Thank you.