2018 Public Diplomacy Camp to Provide Youth from Asian Countries Weak in Winter Sports with Opportunity to Experience Winter Sports in ROK

mofa.go.kr

Date : 2018-08-23 17:07

1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korea Foundation will hold the “2018 Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] Camp” from August 25 till 31 to provide youth from Asian countries weak in winter sports with an opportunity to experience winter sports in the Republic of Korea.

2. The Public Diplomacy  Camp is a program that began in 2014 to support exchanges between youth of the ROK and other countries, who are the future leaders, thereby introducing Korean culture to other countries, and offering youth an opportunity to develop a global mindset. The camp has been held every year under different themes for youth from different regions.

※ ROK-China Public Diplomacy Camp in 2014, MIKTA Young Leaders’ Camp in 2015, ROK-V4 Cultural Exchange Camp in 2016, and Asian Cultural Leaders’ Camp in 2017

- From 2018, the camp will be directly run by the Korea Foundation.

3. This year’s Public Diplomacy Camp, part of programs to follow up on the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, will invite young people from Asian countries weak in winter sports due to their climate to visit the ROK, and provide them with an opportunity to experience winter sports. The camp will also be attended by Korean undergraduates and Asian students studying here, and offer a forum for exchanges between young people.

4. The camp will bring together 28 people, including deputy director-general for East Asian affairs Chansorachana Sieng of the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, programmer Cristina Garcia from the Philippine Sports Commission, and athletes pursuing their dreams in countries weak in winter sports. Among them are Saphal Ram Shretha, Nepal’s only alpine skiing national athlete, Tariq Azam, Pakistan’s promising skier, and Anna Cruz, the captain of the Philippine national short track team.

5. During the camp, the participants will visit the PyeongChang Organizing Committee, which will share with them the ROK’s experience of developing winter sports, and hosting the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games successfully. They will also visit a curling center and an ice skating rink in Gangneung, and experience in person a range of winter sports difficult to enjoy in their own countries.

6. The Foreign Ministry will make more efforts to facilitate people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the ROK and other Asian countries through the public diplomacy camp, one of cultural diplomacy programs using soft power.


* unofficial translation