SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol said on Tuesday the country would step up cooperation with African nations to ensure stable supplies of critical minerals and speed up negotiations to promote economic cooperation and trade.
Hosting a first-ever summit with the leaders of 48 African countries, Yoon said South Korea will increase development aid to Africa to $10 billion over the next six years as it seeks to harness the continent’s rich mineral resources and potential as a huge export market.
“We will seek sustainable ways to cooperate on issues directly related to future development, such as stable supplies of basic minerals and digital transformation,” Yoon said in his opening speech.
It also pledged to provide $14 billion in export financing to promote trade and investment for South Korean companies in African countries.
South Korea is one of the world’s largest energy buyers and home to leading semiconductor producers. It’s also home to the world’s fifth-largest automaker Hyundai Motor Group, which is making a push for electrification.
Cooperation with Africa, which has 30 percent of the world’s reserves of critical minerals, including chromium, cobalt and manganese, is vital, Yoon’s office said.
At least 30 heads of state are participating in the summit, with delegations from 48 countries. Yun and the African Union chairman, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, are to issue a joint statement, Yun’s office said.
Yun proposed “joint development” as a pillar of cooperation with the continent and stressed the need to create a framework to promote trade and exchanges, pledging to speed up talks on economic partnership agreements and trade and investment promotion frameworks.
By approaching bids for aid in industrial infrastructure and digital transformation, South Korea is trying to tap into a huge and fast-growing market home to 1.4 billion people, the majority of whom are 25 and older.
Park Jong-dae, a former South Korean ambassador to South Africa and Uganda, argued that Western and Chinese development models had failed African nations and South Korea offered a valuable alternative path.
“The essence of the Korean model of development cooperation is human development and management, rather than aid per se,” he said.
“Korea has the experience and know-how of development… while many African countries have huge development potential based on untapped resources and resources and a dynamic young population,” he said.
On Wednesday, South Korean business leaders will host a business summit focusing on investment, industrial development and food security.
Yun will continue to hold separate meetings with visiting female leaders.
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Hyonhee Shin, Josh Smith and Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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