Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will visit South Korea next week and deliver an address in the National Assembly on the importance of the global health partnership, the National Assembly Secretariat said in a press release on Tuesday.
The statement said that Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will speak next Tuesday to members of the congress about how global cooperation became essential in the fight against COVID-19 and in preparation for future pandemics. The co-chair plans to stay in South Korea for three days beginning next Monday.
The statement added that the co-chair will be meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Kim Jin-pyo, before the speech. The floor leader of South Korea’s ruling party, Kweon Seong-dong, and the floor leader of democratic opposition party, Park Hong-keun, will be joining the conversation.
This will be the second time the co-chair will be delivering the address in the National Assembly. In April 2013, the co-chair delivered a speech to South Korea’s congress on the activities and prospects of the Gates Foundation. According to a press release by the National Assembly in April 2013, Bill Gates urged South Korea to take part in helping other foreign countries.
“The speech has been arranged after the Speaker suggested the idea [of delivering an address] to [the president of the global health division at] the Gates Foundation in June,” an official of the National Assembly’s International Affairs & Protocol Bureau told The Readable on Wednesday. “[The topic of the speech] will be specifically on COVID,” the official stressed. This event will not be open to the public.
South Koreans are anticipating that the co-chair will meet with President Yoon Suk-yeol during his visit. Bill gates has visited South Korea three times since 2000. During each visit, the co-chair spoke with the South Korean president in office at the time. In 2001, he met with President Kim Dae-jung at the Blue House, the official presidential residence. In 2008 and 2013, he spoke with President Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye at the presidential palace.
