Jejudo Island is best known as a resort island with many sites of scenic beauty and cultural importance. It attracts more than 10 million tourists from home and abroad every year.

Yet the island has another aspect that is less well known to the public. Since the early 1990s, it has hosted many historic summits between Korean presidents and foreign leaders that have contributed to promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

Located at the center of the three key players of the region -- China, Japan and South Korea – Jejudo Island is an ideal venue for such summits.

Against this background, the Korean government officially designated Jejudo Island as an “Island of World Peace” in 2005. 

The island is also a suitable place to organize international conferences on peace and cooperation in the region and beyond. So in 2001, the government inaugurated the Jeju Peace Forum, with the goal of contributing to peace-building in Asia by facilitating a multilateral dialogue on security issues.

The annual forum was renamed the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity in 2011, as its focus was expanded to include nontraditional security issues.

This year’s forum, the 11th edition since 2011, is to kick off in Seogwipo of the southern coast of the island on Wednesday, focusing on a wide range of issues under the overarching theme of “Asia’s New Order and Cooperative Leadership.”

The three-day event consists of some 70 sessions, with around half of them debating traditional security issues, such as nuclear disarmament, terrorism and geopolitics in Northeast Asia, and the remaining half covering nontraditional arenas, including low economic growth, climate change, energy, health, human rights and cyberspace.

The number of participants in the forum has been on the rise as its scope of issues has been continuously expanded. This year’s conference is to be attended by some 4,500 participants from 60 countries, including current and former heads of state, CEOs of global corporations, renowned scholars, representatives of international organizations and journalists.

The list of speakers features some of the biggest names in Asia and the world, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, former Malaysian leader Mahathir bin Mohamad and former Singaporean leader Goh Chok Tong.

Prominent global business leaders also participate in the forum to share their experience and insights. They include Siemens AG president and CEO Joe Kaeser and Tesla Motors’ cofounder and chief technical officer Jeffrey B. Straubel.

The annual conference is certain to provide a rare opportunity for participants to explore cooperative solutions to evolving regional and global challenges to peace and prosperity. As most of today’s problems go beyond national boundaries, cooperation among countries involved is essential to finding solutions to them.

The forum is often regarded as Korea’s answer to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Yet it is far behind the WEF in terms of international recognition and influence. The government needs to exert more efforts to develop it into a globally recognized venue for sharing creative ideas on peace and prosperity.