I.P.O. Information Service
Opening of the FIFA World Cup 2002 in Seoul
International Roundtable on Understanding among Cultures and Peoples
Seoul, 31 May 2002/P/RE/17736c-is
At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, the President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), Professor Hans Koechler, has arrived in Seoul in order to attend the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup 2002.
Tomorrow, 1 June 2002, the President of the I.P.O. will deliver a statement at the roundtable of eminent persons on “Promoting Understanding among Cultures and Peoples.” The meeting is held on the occasion of the opening of the World Cup Finals 2002 and is jointly organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation (Singapore) and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.
The World Cup Roundtable will deal with basic issues of the dialogue among cultures, with current impediments to meaningful dialogue, with the necessity of a new paradigm in global relations, with the importance of sports for international understanding, and with the role of national and international institutions. Professor Koechler will make a presentation on “The Dialogue of Civilizations: Philosophical Basis, Political Dimensions, and the Relevance of International Sporting Events.” Since the foundation of the International Progress Organization thirty years ago, Professor Koechler has coordinated several projects on cultural dialogue and international communication in the framework of UNESCO’s participation program.
Among the participants of the roundtable will be the former President of Switzerland, Mr. Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of East Timor, Mr. Jose Ramos Horta; Mr. Jacques Attali (France), former Governor of the Bank of Europe; Professor Rosemary Foot of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University (United Kingdom); Professor Sang-Jin Han, Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning of the Republic of Korea; Professor Guang Pan, Director of the Institute of European Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (People’s Republic of China); and Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto, President of the Japan Center for International Exchange, Tokyo. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, H.E. Lee Han-dong, is expected to receive the participants.
The Korean National Commission for UNESCO and the Asia-Europe Foundation will publish the proceedings of the roundtable.
