President Lee Myung-bak held a summit on November 21 with President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines, and agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in the economic, development, and energy sectors.

At the beginning of the talk held in the presidential residence of Malacanang Palace in Manila, President Lee expressed gratitude to his Philippine counterpart for the invitation despite a crowded schedule packed with regional meetings including APEC and ASEAN among others. The Korean leader invited President Aquino to pay a state visit to Korea in return, on the occasion of the Nuclear Security Summit next year.

President Lee and President Aquino agreed to reinforce cooperative measures in the agricultural sector to achieve efficient use of agricultural resources through collaboration on a set of irrigation and multi-industry cluster projects.

The two leaders agreed to join hands to maximize Korea’s official development assistance in line with the Philippines Development Plan 2011-2016. The Philippines Development Plan 2011-2016 embodies the socio-economic development goals of the country as a follow-up of its previous version for the period of 2006-2010.

The Korean government has worked closely with the Philippines in providing both concessional and non-concessional aid to help development initiatives in agriculture and infrastructure modernization, partly through its Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). During the summit, Korea pledged to increase its previous three-year cap on loans from $300 million to a maximum of $500 million for a three-year period from 2011 to 2013.

On the sidelines of the summit, the two sides concluded a set of agreements elaborating on the framework for official development assistance including an EDCF contract and concessional aid from Korea to the Philippines. Cooperation deals over agriculture and infrastructure followed, including signings of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on a power plant in Subic and construction of a multi-industry cluster in the province of Misamis Oriental located in the southern part of the Philippines.

At the summit, the two sides also discussed a broad range of issues including defense, bilateral exchanges of human resources and culture as well as enhancing cooperation in the international arena.