SEOUL, South Korea: The Seoul Metropolitan Government will hold the 10th annual meeting of its international advisory council, Seoul International Business Advisory Council, at the Grand Hyatt Seoul hotel on October 7.

Under the theme of "The Asian Century: City of Seoul, Major Opportunities & Major Challenges", the meeting will be participated by some 300 CEOs of global businesses and renowned economists, including Stephen K. Green, chairman of HSBC Holdings Plc, who has recently been appointed as next UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment.

Launched in 2001 to get advice and recommendations from international business leaders, the council currently chaired by Tesco Plc Chairman David Reid is composed of 23 members and five advisors, and meets annually in October.

This year's meeting will open at 9 a.m. with the remarks by Chee Onn Lim, chairman of the Board of Directors at Singbridge International Singapore Pte. Ltd. and deputy chairman of SIBAC.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will give welcoming remarks to thank the council members for helping the city become a world top 10 city, announcing his plan to work towards making Seoul a world top five city this time. Congratulatory speech by Maurice R. Greenberg, chairman & CEO of C.V. Starr and Company, will follow.

Stephen K. Green, will also attend the G20 Business Summit in Seoul in November this year, will deliver a keynote speech, in which he will explain advantages of Seoul in three ways -- leadership, location and opportunity. As for "opportunity", according to Green, the city can replicate manufacturing successes in other industries like finance, building on rapid rise up the Global Financial Centers Index over the last two years.

The first session of the meeting will be devoted to the theme of "Further strengthening Seoul's industrial competitiveness by reorganizing the industrial structure of Seoul". The second session, on the other hand, will feature the theme, "Further developing Seoul through city policies focused on 'gender mainstreaming'".

Marking its 10th anniversary this year, SIBAC has made suggestions to the city on 188 items in 13 fields like finance, investment and city marketing, 156 items, or 83 percent of which have been referred or reflected in city administration. It also played a role in forming the environments favorable for foreign investors.