The Republic of Korea will host the 53rd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group in the port city of Busan on May 21-25, 2018.

"I congratulate India on hosting such a successful Annual Meeting here in Ahmedabad," said Jiyoung Choi, International Financial Institutions Director in the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance, speaking at the Closing Ceremony of the Bank's 52nd Annual Meetings. "And I warmly welcome you to Busan in May 2018."

Bank President Akinwumi Adesina expressed the Bank's enthusiasm for its 2018 venue, "the beautiful city of Busan", and its Korean hosts. "Korea has so much to teach us about economic development, and what a country can do with a combination of political will, entrepreneurship and self-sacrifice. We have so much to learn from the Korean ability to get things done."

Korea has a long history of supporting African development. It joined the Bank in 1982, and has significant status as a recipient-turned-donor country. From 2006 it has jointly hosted the biennial Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference, KOAFEC. "We want to share our experience in poverty reduction and industrialization," said Choi. Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund has supported projects in North, West, East, Central and Southern Africa.

Busan will be the fifth city outside Africa to host the AfDB Annual Meetings, after Valencia, Spain, in 2000; Shanghai, China, in 2007; Lisbon, Portugal, in 2011, and Ahmedabad, India in 2017.

For more information on the Annual Meetings: www.afdb.org/am

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