South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Monday it will hold the seventh Korea-ASEAN Joint Committee and Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation on June 24 to 25 in Vientiane, Laos, together with ASEAN member states and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Attendees include senior officials from the ministry and science and technology ministries of 11 ASEAN countries, and 12 officials from domestic and overseas expert institutions including the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the National Institute of Green Technology (NIGT).

At the seventh joint committee meeting on June 24, participants will share Korea-ASEAN science and technology policies and review existing cooperation projects, while also discussing new cooperation tasks. Key new agenda items are Korea-ASEAN AI convergence and diffusion led by NIPA, and science and technology cooperation for ASEAN carbon neutrality and clean air led by KITECH.

The AI convergence and diffusion project is a key pillar of the $30 million Korea-ASEAN Digital Innovation Flagship (KADIF) under the Korea-ASEAN Cooperation Fund, and aims to expand AI services in ASEAN and support Korean AI companies' entry into local markets.

Participants will also review the status of ongoing agenda items including building data-use infrastructure led by STEPI, a Korea-ASEAN AI development and start-up competition led by NIPA, and cooperation to build the Southeast Asian Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (SEAVN) led by KASI.

On June 25, a Korea-ASEAN science, technology and innovation workshop will be held. Based on a Korea-ASEAN work plan for 2025 to 2027 established in line with the ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation for 2026 to 2035, participants will identify cooperation projects in three priority areas: capacity building, joint research and research infrastructure. Three sessions are set to discuss multilateral joint research plans including NIGT's industrial strategy for carbon reduction, KITECH's cooperation on biomass energy and KASI's construction of a radio observation network.

Koo Hyuk-chae (구혁채), first vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "We will strengthen a practical partnership that goes beyond simple exchanges and works together to solve ASEAN's challenges through scientific and technological innovation."