On November 14, Secretary-General LIM Byung-Jin delivered a video congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony of the 16th Subcommittee on Environment, co-hosted by the NEAR Secretariat and Toyama Prefecture. 

In his congratulatory remarks, Mr. Lim expressed his gratitude to the officials of Toyama Prefecture for their efforts in maintaining and developing the Subcommittee on Environment for over 20 years, and his hope that more member regions will share the importance of environmental conservation and make joint efforts through the Subcommittee on Environment in the future.

At this meeting, 10 local governments from three countries, including Japan, Korea, and Russia, as well as officials from the Japanese Ministry of Environment, reported on the implementation status and activities of individual projects in fiscal year 2023 and explained the individual projects for fiscal year 2024. Furthermore, the meeting also discussed how the next Subcommittee on Environment will be held, including the possibility of holding it online.

The Subcommittee on Environment is coordinated by Toyama Prefecture, and was first held in 1999, then annually held until 2005, and biannually since 2007. The contents of the Subcommittee on Environment meetings and individual project implementation data are available in five languages on the Environmental Information Square (https://www.npec.or.jp/northeast_asia/).