President Lee Jae-myung said Saturday that he would "accelerate Korea's powerful leap into the maritime power that former President Kim Young-sam had dreamed of."
Speaking at the 31st Day of the Sea ceremony held in Yeongdo District, Busan, Lee said, "Korea will become the central axis connecting Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific, safeguarding the free navigation of neighboring countries and an open trade order." He added, "A shipbuilding and shipping power boasting the world's top technology, a trading power moving beyond record-high exports toward the era of $1 trillion in exports, and now a global defense power that the world seeks first — the starting point of the 'Korea ship' that has powerfully set sail toward the world was right here, the sea."
He continued, "The protagonists who opened up this vast sea route at the very front line are our seafarers and maritime and fisheries workers." He said, "The foreign currency you earned by risking your lives aboard foreign merchant ships and deep-sea fishing vessels was the strength that protected your families' livelihoods and became the foundation that built up our national economy." Lee also stressed, "Like the dedication of the miners and nurses dispatched to Germany during the industrialization era, the quiet footprints of our seafarers and maritime and fisheries workers are also great achievements that must be proudly engraved in the history of Korea's industrialization."
Lee said, "The launch of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries under the Kim Young-sam administration in 1996 was an expression of strong determination to enhance the competitiveness of shipping, ports, shipbuilding, the marine industry and fisheries, and to elevate Korea into a maritime power." He added, "Thirty years have passed since then, and now the sea has gone beyond being a mere space for logistics and industry to become the front line that determines the survival and future of the nation."
He also said, "In this era of uncertainty, when the global trade order and supply chains are being reshaped, the safety of and leadership over the sea — the bloodline of the global economy — have become more important than ever." Lee pledged, "We will lead a new maritime order in which everyone enjoys the sea together and prospers together at sea."
