'Honduras takes Korea as economic model'

Ebal Diaz Lupian, Honduran secretary of state and presidential advisor, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the Honduran Embassy
to South Korea in Jong-no, downtown Seoul, Thursday. Diaz, who also serves as the country's executive secretary of the council of ministers, made
a six-day visit here — that ended Saturday — with Roberto Ochoa Madrid, vice minister of foreign affairs, upon the invitation of the Korea Foundation.
/ Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Yi Whan-woo

South Korea is a role model for Honduras in its economic reform under President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a senior Honduran official said Thursday.

Ebal Diaz Lupian, secretary of state and presidential adviser for the Honduran government, said the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) especially has been a key to his country's plan to build its first free economic zone (FEZ).

Diaz, who is also executive secretary of the Council of Ministers, said the Central American nation is open for more investment from South Korean enterprises.

"For Honduras, it's very important to have a partner like South Korea because it has learned how to do a lot of good things," he said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the Honduran Embassy in Seoul. "For example, you were capable of building this country, and for us it's amazing."

Since taking office in February, Hernandez has put priority on reforming the government structure, police, tax, education and business investment, according to the Honduran Embassy. It added Diaz, 40, is "the right hand of the President" in Hernandez's efforts to improve the government structure and bolster economic growth during his single four-year term.

Diaz especially underscored the support of KOICA, the foreign aid agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in building Honduras' first FEZ. The KOICA donated $400 million to set up an international business district in the south of the country, under a project titled "Zone for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDE)." The construction will be completed by 2016.

"The KOICA has been working with us for many years and it has been our good partner," Diaz said. "The support that Korea has been giving us is welcomed in Honduras," Diaz said. "And its next step is to give private investment so that it can have more opportunities in markets that are difficult for Korea to reach just now, and increase profits."

According to Diaz, the ZEDE, which modeled on Hong Kong, will provide a favorable business environment for entrepreneurs. It will have its own political, judicial, economic and administrative system based on free market capitalism in running its own eight sectors ― logistics, business courts, service sectors, renewable energy, commerce, agriculture, tourism and mining.

Diaz also stressed that investors could capitalize on the ZEDE's location.

"In our minds, we plan to construct a dry canal from the Gulf of Fonseca to the Caribbean to connect the Pacific coast with the Atlantic coast and connect some of the world's great markets ― Asia, the Americas and Europe," he said.

Roberto Ochoa Madrid, vice minister of foreign affairs of Honduras, also told the Korea Times he valued the support of KOICA for the ZEDE.

"This is one of the projects that (are part of) the new government's commitment to improve living standards," he said.

"In this sense, we find the KOICA program helpful to increase labor opportunities in the zone."

In particular, he said his meeting with South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong on Thursday was "fantastic."

Ochoa said the Honduran government considered South Korea as its development model and hoped to increase cooperation in various fields.

"We discussed every program (in the ZEDE) ― it was a very fantastic meeting with a very gentle diplomat," Ochoa said. "The initiatives we discussed could make difference in our future relationship."

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