Jointly organized by Kangwon National University, Korean Association of Public Finance and Economics, and UNESCAP, this one-day Symposium was held on March 26, with a theme of "Pursuing Green Growth in Asia and the Pacific".

Sixteen papers were presented in front of the audience of more than 100 people. Among the sixteen paper presenters were Mr Akio Morishima (Chair, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan), Ms Tanja Srebotnjak (Project Director of Environmental Performance Measurement, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, USA), Mr Jean-Philippe Barde (Head of the National Policies Division, OECD), and Ms Olivia la O' Castillo (President, the Asia Pacific Roundtable for Cleaner Production).

Participants showed the same sentiment that the countries in Asia and the Pacific need to pursue a new paradigm of “Green Growth” which means pursuing economic growth while maintaining environmental sustainability. Participants also presented and discussed policy measures for the pursuit of “Green Growth” paradigm.

Participants agreed that the environmental policies need to be integrated with the common economic policies in order to create a win-win synergy between the environment and the economy. A paper presented in the Symposium revealed that while income appears to have a beneficial effect on reducing pollution levels, it has a detrimental effect on most ecological efficiency measures of environmental sustainability. This suggests that while conventional environmental policies focus on pollution control, policy options focusing on ecological efficiency aspects of environmental sustainability need to be strengthened in the process of economic development. In this regard, more active role of civil society was emphasized.