Chungcheongnam-do

▲ Image of foreign students (From the left, Phok Sreypich, JIN Yan Ting, CHENG Guang, JI Zeng Fa)

Chungcheongnam-do will operate the K2H (Korea Heart to Heart) program, an invitational training project for foreign local government officials, for six months until October 11. 

On April 21, the province revealed it had invited one government official each from its sisterhood relationship and friendship exchange groups in Guizhou, Hebei and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China, and Siem Reap in Cambodia, to start the K2H training.

Under the K2H program outstanding foreign local government officials are invited to receive training on the Korean local government administration with the aim of having them play a central role in exchanges between the two regions in the future.

Among them, Cheong Gwang from Guizhou has already completed a Master’s course in Korea and is fluent in Korean, and Jin Yanting from Helong in Yanbian, the region in China that is closest to North Korea, is also very fluent in Korean.

In addition, Ji Zeng Fa from Hebei, which enjoys a sisterhood relationship with the province, and Pok Srepik, who graduated from the Cambodia Royal University of Law & Economy, are fluent in English as well as being outstanding government officials whose abilities have been recognized in their own countries.

Basically, the trainees will follow Korean language classes customized to their individual level for four days a week for about five months, and will also attend the main festivals in the region such as the National Junior Sports Festival, Great Admiral Yisunsin Festival, Hansanmosi Cultural Festival, and Baekje Cultural Festival as well as the World Ginseng Expo.

Notably, the trainees will be considered with task training in consideration of the main provincial policies and their preferred field, and will receive various types of support, including a home stay, fields trip to industrial facilities, and physical and leisure activities in their free time, during the training period.

Lee Dong-soon, head of the business commerce & exchange division in the province, stated: "The foreign government officials will return to their home countries after learning about the administration and historic culture of Chungnam, and will play the role of strengthening exchanges between the two local governments. We will do our utmost to introduce the trainees to Korea and Chungnam through this training program and support their efforts to develop themselves into honorary ambassadors."