Africa’s other great Asian ally South Korea is stepping back on the plate to scramble for Africa along with other competing superpowers.
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye arrived in Ethiopia as part of her tour to three African countries to promote Korea’s role as an emerging development partner on the continent assisting the country’s economic and social advancement while creating more business opportunities for Korean companies.
“Korea hopes to build a mutually beneficial and future-oriented economic cooperation whilst it will continue its work to contribute in promoting health and building stronger capacity to combat infectious disease in Africa”, the President said in her speech at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on Friday.
“Jointly with the AU, which designated 2016 as the ‘African Year of Human Rights with Particular Focus on the Rights of Women’, Korea will seek close cooperation in the areas of education, health and capacity building for these girls to blossom”.
Park who is accompanied by 111 Korean companies hoping to do business with Africans envisions bringing together the continent’s creative talent and Korea’s strengths in a wide range of new growth industries such as ICT, medicine, environment, and science and technology.
“I believe I will be able to usher in an African era of renaissance”, she asserted.
Very much like that of South Korea, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union Commission (AUC) chairwoman said Africa’s revolution will ensure that it focus on developing skills in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Promoting Korea as a development partner through the provision of economic and social assistance to support that goal, the president will launch a new initiative called “Korea Aid”, a mobile comprehensive development cooperation project in the coming legs of her visit.
The Korea Aid project will first kick off on Saturday at Addis Ababa and travel some 100kms to the central city of Adama. Some 1,600 local people, including college students, are expected to participate during this stop which runs through May 31, 2016. The Uganda leg of the project will take place some 50kms away from the capital Kampala between May 30 and 31. The Kenya leg will happen between June 1 and 2 near Nairobi near the Korean Project on International Agriculture (Kopia) office.
Through another initiative the President announced during her speech “Blueprint for Comprehensive Cooperation with Africa”, which anticipates a two way exchanges of 10,000 youths as a way to expand job opportunities for young Africans. She also adds that over the next five years, 6,000 talented Africans will be offered education and training opportunities in either Korea or Africa and 4,000 Korean volunteers will be sent to Africa.
By emphasizing Africa and Korea’s shared colonial history and Korea’s own recent struggle with poverty, Park highlights her country’s ability to provide technical expertise and training in the Korean development model as its comparative advantage in Net Official Development Assistance (ODA).
There are currently 16 beneficiary African countries of ODA. Ethiopia is the biggest beneficiary of Korea’s ODA with 184 US million dollars being spent between 1987 and 2015 focusing on major projects including water management health, agriculture and infrastructure.
In Uganda, with up to 27 million US dollars, the majority of projects focus on lifting locals out of poverty by increasing agricultural productivity and income. Whereas in Kenya with the total amount of aid by 2014 reaching almost 40 million US dollars, water security, education and governance are the top priorities.
Despite the rising importance of African markets though, a government report shows that, South Korea’s exports to the region only accounted for 1.4 percent of its total exports as of 2015. Bilateral trade between South Korea and African countries increased fourfold from 5.7 billion dollars in 2000 to 22.2 billion dollars in 2011 and exports to Africa jumped five times in the same period. The Korean International Cooperation Agency has agricultural projects in 21 African countries.
Among the three countries that Park is visiting, Ethiopia has a special relationship with Korea. This African country sent thousands of Ethiopian gallant warriors who took part in the Korean War during 1950-53 in response to a call by the United Nations Security Council. Bound by the motto “One for all and all for one” to “fight until we win or die”, the Ethiopian Kagnew Battalions won all 235 of its battles against the enemy forces. True to their motto, there were 121 deaths and 536 injuries but not a single one of the 6,037 warriors went missing or become a prisoner of war.
“Ethiopia, which hosts the AU, dispatched troops during the Korean War and her troops shed their blood to help defend Korea’s freedom and democracy which we will not forget”, Park said.
Kenya also shares a special relationship with Korea. Korea tied a diplomatic knot with Kenya in 1964 under the presidency of Park Chung-hee, the late father of the current President Park. The Korean Embassy in Kenya was the first Korean mission established in Africa. Park will be the first Korean president to visit the country after President Chun Doo-hwan’s in 1982.
“We learnt from South Korea’s rise that strong states and institutions are an important driver for the type of development required to lift our people out of poverty and equality”, Zuma, said.
The President also discussed security threats arising from the confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear program.
“At the moment, Korea faces a serious security threat caused by North Korea’s nuclear program”, she stressed.
“Since Africa has experienced the process of crafting an agreement on the ‘African Nuclear-Weapon Free Zone’, I ask for your cooperation in urging North Korea to give up its nuclear program”.
Korea dispatched a UN peacekeeping force to Somalia in 1993, and subsequently to Western Sahara, Angola and most recently South Sudan where an engineering unit with over 290 service members is now stationed.
“We are currently holding discussions with the AU and the UN about building a facility in Mali and we will increase our financial contributions to the AU Peace Fund”, she added.
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