Public servants and professionals from 23 Asian and Pacific countries, all specialized in environmental policies, gathered in Seoul from July 16 to 18 to discuss, "improving resource efficiency and sustainable development." They were attending the ninth Policy Consultation Forum of the Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth, co-hosted by the Ministry of Environment and the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).




Participants from across the region, including the Philippines and Cambodia, and from international organizations made presentations during the various sessions. Topics covered resource efficiency and associated policies, promoting green industries, successful case studies, technology transfer and how to implement pilot projects from the 2013 Seoul Initiative. During the review of pilot projects, they introduced asbestos-related risk management, improving water quality in rural areas, sustainable waste management and separate discharge and sanitation in several countries, including Thailand, Fiji and Sri Lanka.

"The lack of knowledge and awareness about the risks of asbestos is an important factor, as they have been continually exposed to asbestos," said Sutida Utapan from the Thai Bureau of Occupational and Environmental Health, Disease and Control. "The Ministry of Public Health should be the organization that carries out this activity and implements a strategy to raise awareness."

"A method of processing waste water applicable to rural areas in Fiji has to be of low cost and simple, with an automatic system that does not require many inputs," said professor Lee In-gyu from the University of Seoul. "When the insufficient local power supply and operating costs are taken into consideration, biological processes are feasible for Fiji."

This forum is the result of the Seoul Initiative on Green Growth, a plan proposed by Korea during the fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific held in 2005. The forum has taken place every year since 2006.



By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
jun2@korea.kr