Daejeon OECD science meeting to be 1st gathering outside Paris

South Korea's ICT ministry said Sunday the upcoming science ministerial gathering of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will be the first of its kind outside Paris, reflecting South Korea's efforts to beef up its presence around the globe.

South Korea is hosting the OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015, World Science & Technology Forum, which will open on Monday and run through Friday.

The event will be held in Daejeon, located 164 kilometers south of Seoul, which is home to numerous science organizations including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning said it has been making efforts to host the event since August 2013, when it handed in a letter of intent to the Paris-based OECD headquarters.

With the meeting to be held outside Paris for the first time since its inaugural gathering in 1963, the ministry said the event will become a great opportunity to promote South Korea's science technology.

South Korea also asked the OECD to expand its science ministerial gathering to the global level by inviting members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Daejeon.

Accordingly, the number of participating countries at the gathering has reached 57, along with 12 other science-related global institutions.

The event will likely bring the OECD and ASEAN closer, allowing them to discuss how to narrow economic and social gaps among the different countries around the globe. (Yonhap)