The largest annual gathering of businesspeople of Korean heritage kicked off in Seoul on Tuesday. 

Some 12-hundred entrepreneurs from 46 countries including South Korea convened at the 19th World Korean Business Convention slated for a three-day run until Thursday at Lotte Hotel World in southern Seoul. 

President Moon Jae-in sent a congratulatory letter, read by Overseas Koreans Foundation Chairman Kim Sung-gon during the opening ceremony, saying that South Korea was the first nation in the world recognized by the United Nations to make a successful transition into a developed nation from a developing one.
 
Moon said Korean businesspeople at home and abroad had a hand in helping the nation in the accomplishment, calling dubbing them its economic diplomats. 

Under the theme of "A Fourth Industrial Revolution and Green New Deal in Response to Climate Change," participants announced a joint declaration on Tuesday to vow efforts and cooperation to help South Korea achieve its goal of going carbon neutral by 2050.