Tunis — As part of the implementation of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) action plan, the Korean Government and the Export-Import Bank of Korea are planning to hold a workshop on Korea's economic development experiences for government officials of Southern African countries. The event will be held November 19-22 2007 at the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa.

The main objective of the workshop is to provide government officials with an overview of Korea's economic development experiences and explore the possibilities for application in African countries. The workshop will cover the following ten countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The workshop is a result of the Ministerial Conference on KOAFEC held April 2006, where the "Korea Initiative on Africa's Development" was drafted to identify areas of collaboration between South Korea and Africa. These areas include infrastructure, human resources development, information and communication technology, and knowledge sharing.

The first of these on-the-spot workshops, done in collaboration with the African Development Bank, was held October 2-5 2007 in Tunis, Tunisia, for government officials of North African countries. Similar workshops are planned for the other sub-regions of Africa with Angola and Madagascar to be included in the Central Africa region. These workshops also aim to contribute to the economic development of the continent by identifying and promoting investment opportunities, and financing viable projects.