Korea, Africa are natural partners
Last week was the undeclared week of Africa. The African culture festival, social functions organized for and by 19 African envoys in Seoul and other events took place to celebrate the Africa Day that commemorates the inauguration of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.
Over the past half century Africa has made a tremendous transformation. Above all, OAU evolved into the African Union in 2002. The main agenda of the pan-African organization were switched from anti-colonialism and anti-apartheid to human rights, democracy and the well-being of ordinary citizens. The new mandates of AU are the result of serious reflections on mistakes and failures of the past era and reflects new consensus on good governance aimed at delivering peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa.
Exceptionally high economic growth registered by Africa since the 2000s indicates that a new direction taken by African states is not empty rhetoric but well justified by actions of substance.
It is no mere compliment to coin Africa “the rising continent” and “the future engine of the world economy.”
One of the events organized to celebrate Africa Day was a roundtable meeting with African Ambassadors in Seoul jointly hosted by The Korea Times and the Korea-Africa Center.
At the meeting African envoys were in one voice in anticipating more serious economic partnership between Africa and Korea. One of the reasons why African countries are interested in cooperation with Korea is our experience of economic development which all of our African partners are eager to emulate.
From our perspective, Africa is also our natural partner. Africa, with more than a quarter of the member states of the United Nations, is an utterly crucial continent for our middle power diplomacy aimed at garnering support for us in the international arena. To revitalize our economy we also need Africa: resource-rich, energetic with youthful population, and largely an unexplored new frontier.
We have already been pursuing a more active and vigorous policy toward Africa since 2006 when Korea’s initiative for Africa’s development was announced. Now it is about time for us to take a good look again at this continent rapidly emerging as our partner to broaden our scope of political and economic cooperation.
We are now sending out presidential envoys to let our partners in the world know the vision of our new administration. The message to be sent by our new government to Africa is clear. Korea is ready to explore new frontiers of cooperation with the continent that represents the promise of the future of the world.