South Korea will host the largest ever ministerial-level African cooperation meeting in 2016, as the country moves to strengthen economic ties with the continent, the government said Friday.
The Korea Africa Economic Cooperation gathering set for Oct. 24-27 in Seoul is expected to be attended by some 54 senior policymakers, officials from the African Union and the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the finance ministry said.
This is much larger than the 36 ministerial officials who were present at the last meeting in 2012.
The ministry which is co-hosting the four-day event with AfDB and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, said it will use the next 10 months to set up various cooperation programs that can foster closer bonds and fuel economic opportunities that will benefit all sides. It said that talks will allow Seoul to offer more effective overseas development assistance that can raise the growth potential of African countries and help create jobs.
In addition, it said next year's KOAFEC meeting will adopt a joint communique that will outline a detailed action plan for the next two years.
Besides official meetings, the ministry in charge of formulating South Korea's economic policies said it will arrange one-on-one business meetings between local companies and their African counterparts that can lead to new deals down the road.
KOAFEC has been held every two years since 2006, but it was canceled last year after the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in Africa. (Yonhap)
