The President of the Republic of Korea welcomes MONDRAGON and cooperatives around the world to the Seoul World Congress

The Congress in which both the vice-lehendakari and the director of Institutional Relations of MONDRAGON, Iñigo Albizuri, participated as speakers, who focused his intervention on the need to reinforce the cooperative identity.

Also attending the meeting in Seoul were the president of the Higher Council of Cooperatives of the Basque Country, Patxi Olabarria; the president of KONFEKOOP, Rosa Lavín; the president of the Congress and of the Permanent Commission of the MONDRAGON Corporation, Javier Goienetxea; and the director of Cooperativa Difusión, Ander Etxeberria.

The congress, which took place between December 1 and 3, was opened by the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in and the Minister of Economy, Hong Nam-ki, on whom the cooperatives of his country depend. The opening ceremony was also attended by the President of the International Cooperative Alliance, Ariel Guarco, and its General Director Bruno Roelants, who welcomed the representatives of the world cooperative movement who were at the opening ceremony and the thousands who have followed the act online.

In his opening speech, in addition to thanking the hosts for their hospitality, ICA President Ariel Guarco stressed that the objective of this World Cooperative Congress is to "share learnings and build new proposals to deepen our Cooperative Identity in a global scenario that is still critical and uncertain in health, economic, social and environmental terms”.