South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Youngsam has sought Nepal’s support to the east Asian country’s bid to host World Expo in Busan in 2030 as Saudi Arabia, Italy and Ukraine compete with South Korea to host the event.

Nepal, however, has been caught between choosing South Korea and Saudi Arabia, both of which host thousands of Nepali migrant workers and are important sources of foreign exchange earnings for the country, besides being Nepal’s development partners.

A source at the Nepali embassy in Seoul told the Post that the South Korean government has indicated that they would provide increased economic support to Nepal if the country supports its bid to host the World Expo.

The South Korean deputy foreign minister also clearly sought Nepal’s support in a brief talk with the Post.

“We want Nepal’s active support for our bid to host World Expo 2030. In this regard I am confident that we can share a lot of economic development experiences with Nepal,” Deputy Foreign Minister Choi told the Post on the sidelines of the World Journalists Conference 2023 in Seoul on Tuesday.

“At the same time, to further facilitate Nepal’s attention and participation in Busan World Expo, we are going to try out best support and assistance to Nepal.”

South Korea plans to host the World Expo in its southern city of Busan while Saudi Arabia plans to host the event in its capital Riyadh. Likewise, Italy has presented Rome as the host city while Ukraine has chosen Odesa as the host city if given the opportunity.

The member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), an international intergovernmental organisation, vote to select the host city. The BIE is in charge of overseeing and regulating all international exhibitions that last more than three weeks and are of non commercial nature.

In February, South Korea sent its top diplomat Jang Sung Min as Special Envoy of President Yoon Suk-Yeol to Nepal. The Nepali embassy source said that one of the major objectives of the envoy’s visit was to seek support for South Korea’s bid to the host the World Expo in Busan besides discussing on the activities to be carried out to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two counties next year. Nepal and South Korea had established diplomatic relations on 15 May 1974.

Minister Choi described the relations with Nepal as “very special” and economic relations between the two nations reciprocal, hinting that Nepali migrant workers were contributing to the South Korean economy. “Our relations with Nepal have a very bright future in the sense that Nepal and our country’s economic structure is mutually reciprocal,” he said. According to the Nepali embassy in Seoul, there are nearly 40,000 Nepalis working in South Korea.

Minister Choi also discussed plans to mark the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“We are preparing various cultural and official events. We can work together for this in the future,” he said, highlighting official development assistance provided by his country to Nepal as another facet of the bilateral relations.

“We are going to try our best so that we can contribute more and share more experience with Nepal.”

During his visit to Kathmandu in February, Special Envoy Jang had pledged to increase South Korean aid to Nepal. He had said that one of the objectives of visiting Nepal was to discuss ways to enhance South Korea's development assistance to Nepal.

South Korea has been providing development assistance to Nepal since 1976, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With South Korea emerging as one of the top 10 global economic powers, it wants to increase its development assistance to Nepal as well.

According to Nepal’s Finance Ministry, the Korean government disbursed $38 million in official development assistance to Nepal from the fiscal year 2016-17 to the fiscal 2020-21.

Education, health, planning and statistics, agriculture and earthquake reconstruction are the top five sectors to receive South Korean assistance in the period, according to the ministry.