Welcoming Remarks by H.E. Choi Jong Kun

1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs

On the Occasion of the Fourth Seoul Dialogue on Africa

Your Excellency Ban Ki-moon, 

8th UN Secretary-General,

The Honorable Shin Hyun-Young, 

Secretary-General of the National Assembly Africa's New Era Forum,

Your Excellency Carlos Boungou,

Dean of the African Group of Ambassadors,

Ambassador Lyeo Woon-ki, 

President of the Korea-Africa Foundation,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The warmest of welcomes to all of you. 

I am so delighted that you are here - whether online or offline - at the Fourth Seoul Dialogue on Africa. My sincere thanks go to Ambassador Lyeo and his team for their wonderful preparations for this meaningful event. 

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the presence of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He is here to support our partnership with Africa. We are so proud that he is here with us.

Today’s topic is ‘Rethinking Solidarity: Korea-Africa Partnership in the Interconnectivity Era’. 

COVID-19 and the climate crisis are chilling reminder to us (of) how deeply interconnected we are - and how important it is to work in solidarity and cooperation.

When the pandemic erupted, Africa combatted the pandemic collectively under the coordination of Africa CDC. As soon as the Omicron variant emerged, South Africa was very quick to detect it with its advanced genome sequencing. Thanks to South Africa’s early report, the entire world has saved enormous time in responding to the new variant. I like to pay our respect to the Nation of South Africa and its great people.

African countries are working in solidarity not only in the response to COVID-19, but also in the fight against climate change. 

Heads of states across Africa rolled out the Africa Adaptation Initiative  six years ago, to scale up the response to climate change on the continent. The AU also initiated the Great Green Wall project  to grow a 7,800 km-long natural forest spanning Africa.

We are also witnessing with great respect Africa working hand in hand to protect its democracy. 

ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) intervened in a timely manner with condemnations and sanctions when militaries took over civilian governments in western Africa, and IGAD(Intergovernmental Authority on Development) engaged in the mediation in Ethiopia and South Sudan.

In short, Africa is actively responding to the global crises. It has proved itself a major player. And this means that it is truly vital to join hands with Africa.

Korea, with its own unique experience of achieving an economic and democratic transition in just one generation, is indeed very keen to forge ties of partnership with Africa – a partnership grounded in equality, a partnership which is sustainable.

In this spirit, I would like to invite your attention to three areas in which I believe we can continue to deepen our bonds of cooperation, our ties of collaboration.

First, Korea hopes to forge a partnership for co-prosperity with Africa in the fields of health, climate change, and peace and security. 

At the G7, the Korean government pledged $200 million to COVAX AMC. We did so in recognition to ensure equitable access to vaccines. Korea will also be delivering additional vaccines to Africa in close coordination with the Africa CDC and UNICEF.  

Korea, as a global vaccine hub, will gladly play a leading role to increase the supply of COVID-19 vaccines. Korea is manufacturing and supplying four different COVID-19 vaccines. The first Korean COVID-19 vaccine is scheduled to be on the market before the first half of next year. 

We will also engage with Africa in responding to the climate crisis. Our shared endeavors with Africa in moving towards a low-carbon economy, will focus on the development of renewable energy by increasing Green New Deal ODA. And we also signed a Korea-Africa energy investment framework agreement with the African Development Bank last June, under which we will provide 600 million dollars over a period of five years. 

Korea fully supports Africa playing a leading role in building sustainable peace and stability on the African continent. In addition to providing UN peacekeeping troops, we will provide a medical training centre for peace operations for the AU Peace and Security activities.

Second, Korea wishes to build an economic partnership with Africa, which is mutually beneficial and future oriented.

The recent global supply chain disruption speaks to a very simple fact that Africa will become a more important geo-economic player. 

Africa possesses approximately a third of the world's natural resources, especially crucial raw materials for electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries. Natural resources processing in Africa can contribute to supply chain diversification over the medium to longer term. Korea recognizes Africa’s increasing presence in the global value chain and is ready to work with Africa.

We are also keen to support the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) particularly in the areas of tax administration and customs.

We hope to introduce the UNI-PASS - an electronic Customs Clearance System, which is currently adopted by five African states - to more African countries. We will also introduce the FTA-Pass , an origin-of-goods management system which will be a useful tool in Africa.

Lastly, we wish to forge a people-oriented Partnership with Africa. 

This year, despite the pandemic, the high-level exchanges with Africa thrived. Since June this year, there have been 15 visits to African countries by our deputy ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - including my trips to Senegal, Nigeria, and Morocco – and Korea has received six high-level delegations from Africa. 

Let us maintain this momentum. We hope to hold the 5th Korea-Africa Forum, which unfortunately had to be delayed, at the earliest possible juncture next year.

Young people should not be excluded from people to people exchanges. They should be the drivers of the exchanges. Africa is the continent of young people – with 70% of Sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30, they are the key for the continent’s growth. 

We will expand the government scholarship and vocational training for African students. As of last year, about 2,600 students from African countries have come to Korea to conduct various studies. Over the next five years, I hope to see the number increase at least twofold. As a professor myself, I hope to see more African students in my classes in the future.

Distinguished Guests, 

As we share our thoughts today, I hope that from this dialogue we will gain a renewed sense of connectedness between Africa and Korea. I trust that this will serve as a source of inspiration in our future journey together. Thank you so much for your kind attention.  /The END/