Welcoming address

 Good evening, Mr. Bum-il Kim, Mayor of the Daegu Metropolitan City, Participants for the Daegu International Youth Festival from many countries abroad, and ladies and gentlemen!

 

 It is my pleasure to have this opportunity to express my heartfelt welcome to all of the participants of this program sponsored by the Daegu Metropolitan City.  As we all might know, Daegu is the third largest city in Korea and has been trying its best to foster global education for future leaders.

 

 As the host university for Daegu International Youth Festival, Yeungnam University is truly happy to welcome all of you from the sister cities of Daegu to share perspectives on economy, society, culture, and education in order to achieve mutual prosperity.

 

 Yeungnam University has been making audacious changes since 2009 when it adopted the ‘YU Glocal Initiative’ as the new vision and strategy to pursue globalization and localization. In this avenue for the period of creation and development of the university’s vision, we will closely work together with the City of Daegu in regards to the glocal initiative.

 

 Since the end of the last century, globalization and ICT revolution have been progressing so fast. Now we have one global market. Economic activities and cultures in every country are marked by ever so close interaction with each other and influence from each other.

 

 In today’s world, we need to understand the culture and the society of other countries. We should learn from each other. New challenges are in front of us. One of them is instability of global economy and job shortage problems caused by both severe global competition and unstable global economic system. The other is climate change problem due to pollution.

 

 If we want sustainable growth of the global economy in this beautiful world, we should stop over consumption. We should minimize the volume of CO2 emission. We should protect our planet, this world of ours.

 

 We need new paradigm of global economic order for globalization with a warm heart, and not a cool heart. We need new ideas for sustainable green growth. In our pursuit to deal with these global challenges of the century, we launched ‘YU Glocal Initiative’ as a new vision of our university. That is, Yeungnam University should build up its global competence to create new valuable knowledge and cultivate Y-type talents, and by way of them, initiate the globalization with a warm heart and pursue development of the knowledge-based society.

 

 Under this vision, we have 3 big plans under the name of global frontier 10-3-10. These are GIFT plan, CVC plan, and H2O plan. he GiFT plan stands for ‘Green Innovation For Tomorrow’. Yeungnam University will contribute to making sustainable green growth for the next generation of the world. The CVC plan means ‘Culture Value Creation’. Yeungnam University will create new knowledge for polices for a multi-cultural society where everybody can be happy together. The H2O plan stands for ‘Health and Happiness Oriented’ plan. Yeungnam University will be a frontier in the convergence research of the bio-medical field.

 Yeungnam University is open to the world by way of inbound globalization as well as outbound globalization. We welcome students from all over the world. They will achieve global competence through the Y-type talent development programs offered on this campus. They will work for the happiness of mankind as well as their own after leaving this campus. 

 

 Yeungnam University will be a great university which deserves love and respect from mankind through ‘YU Glocal Initiative’. This is my hope. This is our vision.

 

 Our home town, Daegu, is being revitalized as a “colorful city” and medi-city under the great leadership of Mayor Bum-il Kim. Daegu Kyong-buk region stands by the spirit of Korea. When you truly understand Daegu-Kyongbuk, you can understand the Korean spirit. Daegu-Kyongbuk has inherited original tradition and heritages of the Confucian culture, Buddhism culture and Gaya culture. Daegu-Kyeongbuk is the center of the traditional culture as well as the center of the industrialization in this country.

 

 Within one hour of driving distance, you can pay a visit to places such as Hahoe traditional village, Yangdong traditional village, Seukgulam, Bulkuk temple, Namsan mountain of the Kyongju, the oldest city, the Tripitaka Koreana in Haein temple. All of them are UNESCO-designated World heritage sites. You can also see global businesses located in this area such as POSCO, Samsung Electronic Company, Hyundai Motor Company, and Hyundai Heavy Industry.

 

 So, I think, here in this area, you have a great chance to have a hands-on experience with Korea’s yesterday, today and tomorrow. I hope you will find these experiences helpful in understanding Korea. And it will also broaden your perspectives and insight in your career development.  

 

 I hope everyone of you will enjoy the culture and the warm heart of the people that you meet here. Please do enjoy this opportunity of developing good friendship with students from Yeungnam University as well as international participants in this great program.

 

 My dear young friends, I wish you all good health, good luck and a pleasant time here. Thank you very much.

 

Hyo-Soo Lee, Ph.D.

President

Yeungnam University.