Gyeonggi Province and Virginia State agree to establish six-person consultative body

Gyeonggi Province and the U.S. state of Virginia have agreed to establish a six-person consultative body and hold regular meetings, signaling expanded substantive exchanges between the two regions.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an agreement regarding the establishment of a Policy Consultative Council between the two regions at 11 a.m. on the 28th at the Gyeonggi Province Government situation room.

According to the agreement, the two regions will establish a consultative body composed of three members each for a total of six members and will pursue cooperation in trade, investment, technology, culture, people-to-people exchanges, and information technology sectors through regular meetings.

The Province appointed Choi Hyun-deok, Head of the Economic Affairs Division, as co-chair of the consultative body, while Virginia appointed Maurice Jones, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade who previously served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as co-chair.

Virginia is a hub of the data industry through which more than half of global internet traffic passes. The Province expects to receive support for the Big Pie project that Governor Nam is pursuing through this agreement.

Meanwhile, Governor McAuliffe is a newly inaugurated governor who took office in January and, during his election campaign, pledged to the Korean-American community to mark both the East Sea and Sea of Japan on maps. On March 30, he became a topic of discussion by becoming the first of the 50 U.S. states to sign the East Sea marking bill into law.