South Korea’s commitment towards education and development of human capital contributed significantly to its rapid economic growth, according to vice-minister of education, science and technology for South Korea Hyung-sik Woo.

Addressing over 100 delegates from Korea and the Middle East at the ‘Global HR Forum 2008’, Woo commended Dubai for engineering such a dynamic growth.

“The initiative will aggressively explore current challenges faced by the HR industry on the formation of global education clusters. It will also help formulate human resources development strategies of global enterprises; vocational education initiatives; human resources development strategy in R&D, and new dimensions of cooperation between Korea and the Middle East,” said executive director of Dubai Knowledge Village and Dubai International Academic City Dr Ayoub Kazim delivering the welcome address.

“Our partnership with the government of Korea will not only catalyse the sharing of knowledge and experience among human resource experts, but will also set the stage for exploring innovative solutions in education, enterprise and government, while strengthening bilateral ties between Korea and the Middle East countries,” he added.

The event, which opened yesterday (April 21) at the DKV Conference Centre in Dubai, seeks to foster partnership and share best practices between Korea and the Middle East.

Hosted by Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV), a member of Tecom Investments, in cooperation with the Government of Korea, the two-day forum has brought together policy makers in education and training across the GCC region and Korea, representatives from education and HR institutions, experts and researchers, besides HR specialists and global leaders.

The South Korean government has continued to launch key initiatives geared towards knowledge generation, while building the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the country’s growth.

Though geographically distant, Korea and the Middle East are interrelated by a common objective to further human resource development for creating a talent pool that is demanded to run the fast growing economic sectors in both countries. 

The Government of Korea inaugurated the Global Human Resources Forum in 2006, in collaboration with The Korea Economic Daily, Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, in order to garner worldwide effort to develop and utilize competent human resources, as well as promote stronger collaboration between governments, enterprises and educational institutions. – TradeArabia News Service