About 50 investment authorities and high-level officials from 32 developing nations attended a forum in Seoul on Wednesday to explain their development plans and meet with Korean officials and businessmen.
The Korean government spelled out its policy for industrial and resource cooperation as well as official development assistance plans for developing countries at the Global Industry Cooperation Forum hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
About 30 foreign diplomats in Seoul and 300 people from domestic companies also took part in the gathering at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel.
Soe Thane, industrial minister of Myanmar, gave a keynote speech in which he spoke about plans to expand economic cooperation between his country and Korea. Myanmar is seeking to build infrastructure such as a deep-sea ports, railways and roads in a region called Dawei to develop it into an industrial complex.
A 10-person delegation from Tanzania including the head of its investment center Raymond Mbilinyi and labor minister also attended the forum, showing great interest in economic cooperation with Korea.
The officials from the nations with per capita income of less than $10,000 or undeveloped resource reserves had consultation sessions with Korean companies.
The visiting officials are scheduled to tour reclaimed sites around the Seoul metropolitan area, the thermal power plant in Youngheung, Incheon, and a solar power plant on Thursday.
They will also visit KOTRA to learn about the agency’s promotional activities Friday morning, KOTRA said in a press release.
“As Korea heads toward reaching $2 trillion in trade, we should consider emerging economies not just as markets to sell our products to but as our partners for growth to seek a balanced development of the world economy and trade,” Oh Young-ho, president of KOTRA, said at the forum.
“KOTRA will try to offer substantial assistance for domestic companies’ overseas projects by linking today’s event with the Global Project Plaza 2012 to be held on May 30.”
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)
