Gender Equality Minister Chung Hyun-back pledged to double efforts to support the increasing non-Korean and mixed-race population and help Korean society better cope with the demographic changes. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean officials and experts discussed the new government’s multicultural policies at an annual forum hosted by Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.
Gender Equality Minister Chung Hyun-back pledged to double efforts to support the increasing non-Korean and mixed-race population and help Korean society better cope with the demographic changes.
”There should be more attention and measures to share the notion that multicultural families are an integral part of our society and to help them realize their potential to the fullest,” Chung said in her written message.
The minister also noted the news agency’s efforts on that front by annually holding the forum and running a team of reporters dedicated to the cause.
Some 150 people attended the Multiculturalism Forum at the company’s headquarters in central Seoul. Yonhap News has held the forum annually since 2013.
“Although the country is rapidly becoming a multicultural society, relevant policies and social systems fail to catch up with social change,” he said. “I hope today’s event helps check the accomplishments as well as limitations of the existing policies and puts forth a new direction and tasks,” Park No-hwang, Yonhap News CEO and president, said in his message read by Shim Soo-hwa, managing director for marketing.
A round of presentations by Yoon Hyo-sik, an official from the Ministry of Gender Equality, and Cha Yun-kyung, professor of education at Hanyang University in Seoul, was followed by heated discussions in panels including Kwon Taek-myung, the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Korea executive director, and Heo Su-kyung from the Rainbow Youth Center.
Yoon shared the Moon Jae-in government’s three key policy items designed to help them more easily adapt to the society including the establishment of a comprehensive step-by-step support system, consulting services for children on education and career and the improvement of public awareness of multicultural families.
(Yonhap)
