President Lee Myung Bak’s 84th Radio Address:
Ladies and Gentleman, Good Morning. In the previous weeks I have visited many countries around the Middle East, starting with Turkey and then moving to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
With recent instabilities in the Middle East, citizens have expressed concert about many problems that might lay ahead, such as a decrease in oil supplies. During this tour, leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE all agreed on one statement and that is “we need to do something about the crude oil supply crisis that will come”. If we will be able to completely solve this problem, it would be fortunate.
If we have economic cooperation with these countries I feel as though we can achieve even more than can be expected.
This is the first trip to Turkey I have made since the world economy went into a state of crisis. Though times are difficult there has been a 8-9% economic growth rate reported in the country in the last year. Taking an active leadership role in the Middle East and North Africa, Turkey has a blueprint to become one of the world’s top 10 economies by 2023. Here we have many opportunities for Korean companies to look into participating in business.
In addition, Turkey decided to agree to a FTA agreement with Korea, and due to sensitive items related to agriculture and small business, the possible of the conclusion of the agreement between our two countries will be made as soon as possible.
In Turkey, Korea’s hottest young stars are greatly loved and we think that is the biggest asset to the future of Korean culture [in Turkey]. JYJ’s Kim Jaejoong attended a meeting with the Turkish Youth along with me and received an enthusiastic welcome.
(T/N: the following quote is a voice clip of Jaejoong speaking that was played during the President’s radio speech)
“The amount of good interest showed towards Korea surprised me because I felt that it would be difficult for you to access Korean Culture here. Exchanges between our two countries, including exchanges between the younger generations, is something I consider absolutely necessary” (JYJ’s Kim Jaejoong)
At the University of Ankara, many young people came to meet with the famous Kpop singer and expressed their views on accepting and embracing Korean culture. They even said that they hoped a Korean restaurant would be opened soon in the capital city of Ankara so they could have a chance to try Korean food.
Source: Yonhap News  | Translated by: Yule @ PrinceJJ.com