Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, left, and Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), attend the meeting of the Bid Committee for World Expo 2030 Busan held at the KCCI's headquarters in central Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of KCCI

By Baek Byung-yeul

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), vowed to go all out to make Busan the host city of the World Expo 2030, they said Friday.

"Busan's hosting of the World Expo is not an event for just the city, but the whole nation should play as one team taking it as a national goal," the prime minister said during the first meeting of the Bid Committee for World Expo 2030 Busan, at the KCCI's headquarters in Seoul.

"If we gather the capabilities of the public and private sectors and engage in attraction activities as team Korea, we can certainly succeed," Han added.

Chey, who co-chairs the bidding committee with Han, said Korea will be able to win support from other countries by creating study groups for each country and building trust.

"I believe that if we tap it dozens to hundreds of times with the committee members here, we'll hit the jackpot, which is hosting the World Expo," Chey said.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, right, and Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), head to a meeting room for the Bid Committee for World Expo 2030 Busan's meeting held at the KCCI's headquarters in central Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of KCCI

The meeting was the bid committee's first gathering since the government integrated a private sector-led bid committee and the government-led bid committee recently to bring together its capabilities to attract the international event. The committee is led jointly by the prime minister and the KCCI chairman.

The southern port city of Busan is competing with Saudi Arabia's Riyadh and Italy's Rome to host the World Expo 2030.

The venue for the World Expo 2030 will be decided in a vote by member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) at the end of 2023. Prior to that, the bid committee are scheduled to submit applications and take part in three presentations to compete with other countries.

During the meeting, the committee finalized its detailed action plan for hosting the event, allocating which companies will carry out customized attraction activities in which countries. The ministers of 14 government ministries, the Busan mayor, chiefs of the country's five large conglomerates and leaders of economic organizations will participate as members of the bid committee.