Seoul — The Government of Korea and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at elevating their longstanding partnership to a higher level. The MoU ceremony took place on 25 June at the Korea-Africa Partnership Forum, held in Seoul, Korea. In the presence of high-level Korean policy makers, African ambassadors and business executives from Korea, the MoU was co-signed by Han Jinhyun, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and Mr. Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECA. "The renewed partnership between the two parties will be instrumental in translating the remarkable economic performance of Africa in the past decade into meaningful economic transformation and job creation in Africa," said Mr. Hamdok.
He stated that the success of the envisaged sustainable growth and transformation of Africa requires better access to capital and technology, as well as knowledge sharing through global partnership in general and South-South cooperation in particular. "In this respect, Korea represents an outstanding model of economic transformation," he added.
Less than 50 years ago, Korea was an agrarian economy with internal economic conditions and development challenges similar to most Africa countries. Over the period, the Korean economy has successfully realized structural transformation from agrarian to labor-intensive light manufacturing, to capital-intensive industrialization, and now a knowledge based economy. According to the MoU, the renewed partnership aims to contribute to structural transformation and inclusive growth in Africa through generating a successful Korea-Africa model of transformative growth framework, focusing on an integrated spatial development strategy for industrial and infrastructure development. The areas of cooperation include a range of projects related to shared infrastructure and the development of natural resource and productive sectors. With regard to implementation, the two parties agreed to give due emphasis to synergies across these sectors in order to 'generate a positive spillover.' To this end, the new partnership will establish various partnership modalities, including Public-Private and Private-Private Partnerships (PPPPPs).
