Overview:

    Dates: Apr. 11-12, 2006

    Place: Seoul, South Korea

    Host: Nong Shim Co.,Ltd.

The 5th "World Ramen Summit" was held at the Grand InterContinental, Seoul, South Korea on Apr. 11-12, 2006. It was a big event where major manufacturers of instant noodles gathered in the instant noodle superpower, which leads the world in annual consumption of instant noodles per capita. Following a breakfast meeting consisting of top executives of each country, an official meeting attended by about 60 delegations from around the world was held on the first day. Many guests, including Mr. Park, Chairman of Korea Foods Industry Association, and Mr. Oshima, Japanese ambassador to South Korea were invited to the forum held on the second day. The forum included lectures by six celebrities, including the former Minister of Education of Korea, professor emeritus at Seoul University and others.

Declaration:

Ramen, now a popular food enjoyed by people around the globe, was first introduced to public by Mr. Momofuku Ando, IRMA Chairman, in 1958. As of 2005, approximately 86 billion ramen was consumed meaning that one person enjoyed 13 packs of ramen per year in view of the fact that the total population equals 6.5 billion.

Easy preparation, good taste and low cost are some primary factors contributing to the significant growth of ramen sales. The average annual consumption of ramen is increasing by more than 13% since 2000, and 100 billion ramen would be expected to be sold in 2009.

International Ramen Manufactures Association (IRMA) has been at the forefront of ramen industry since its foundation in March 1997 with the vision of bringing technological advancement and realizing smooth collaboration among member countries. IRMA well understands that sustainable development in the ramen industry can be achieved through a system of interaction and cooperation.

IRMA supported and made effort to establish CODEX Global Standard for Ramen. The Standard will be adopted in The CODEX Alimentarius Commission (General Meeting) on July 2006. This means Ramen will be authorized as Global Food and considerable increase of ramen trade can be expected. This is "The First Year of Global Standard Ramen".

IRMA is playing a huge role in international relief activities, being a helping hand to thousands of people suffering from natural disasters. Recently, we have made ramen donations to the critical areas suffering from unexpected disasters such as Tsunami in Indian Ocean area, Hurricane Katrina & Rita and the Pakistan Earthquake. To cope with this practice, At The 5th World Ramen Summit, 156,000packs of ramen will be delivered to the Korean Red Cross to be used for people in need.

As mentioned above, IRMA is expanding its horizons as authorized international organization with the development of the ramen industry.

The 5th World Ramen Summit attended by delegates and manufacturers from 10 countries around the world has concluded successfully under the theme "Happy World with Ramen!". We hereby would like to contribute to the ramen industry and world peace through these promises below.

We will continuously strive to practice the highest standards of research to improve the quality and nutritional value of ramen products for a healthy balanced diet, in view of CODEX Global Standard.

We will play a more active role in making donations for the love of mankind, especially for the people suffering from unexpected disasters and starvation by poverty. So, we will newly establish "The Ramen Fund for Disaster Relief".

We will exchange information and cooperate each other concerning food safety in order to secure stable and sustainable growth of ramen industry as a whole.