Secretary-General Lee Hae-doo of NEAR Secretariat had a presentation on the "Activities and Roles of NEAR" at the 9th Forum of Open Northeast Asia, which was held in Daejeon University, Daejeon Metropolitan City, on November 3.

At the presentation, the Secretary-General mentioned that international exchanges would be desirable if regional governments were the actors with the supports of the central governments, usually refered to as "bottom-up" form. He took NEAR as an example to be a role of melting pot in the Northeast Asian region.

The 9th Forum of Open Northeast Asia is an academic forum hosted by "Association of Local Politics in Korea," and organized by the "Committee on Northeast Asian Era," a presidential advisory committee.