Africa Day to Hit Seoul
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
The dean of African ambassadors in Seoul holds high expectations for what two forthcoming African cultural presentations will bring to Koreans.
One of them is the opening of a new African cultural museum, and the other, African Day.
Honorat Emmanuel Abeni Koffi, ambassador of Cote d'ivoire who also serves as the dean said, "they are to promote our continent and to let it, Africa, be better known by Korean people through its art and culture."
The cultural museum, which will be the third one in Korea when it opens, will be located in Youngwol, Gangwon Province.
The museum was made possible by a memorandum of understanding signed between the government of Youngwol and Cho Myung-haeng, honorary president of the Korea-African Association.
He expressed his gratitude for the donation to Yongwol, saying the city, being a popular tourism destination, would be a contributing factor to the museum.
The building, with a combined floor space of 10,500 square meters, was used for a different purpose and will be renovated by late September, the ambassador said.
Next to the museum will be a pavilion, run by African embassies as a venue to show something lively about the African culture.
A few weeks ago, African ambassadors made a field trip to the site, overseeing the building and adjacent areas.
African Day is an activity in which 13 African embassies in Korea have direct involvement. It is slated for sometime next month.
Koffi says African Day and preparation efforts carry implications as African countries are in pursuit of unity of the continent.
"We'd like to celebrate African Day, as the European Union does. Africa as a whole is working for unity. It's our common goal and maybe the continent will be united as one in the future," he said in an interview with The Korea Times.
Details of the African Day program are not yet available, as it is still in the planning stage.
Their efforts are an attempt to alter the perception Korean people has of Africa as being a "remote" continent.
The ambassador said he had sensed a lack of knowledge on Africa and its individual countries among Koreans, saying even a simple task like identifying African countries on the map isn't easy for them.
The African continent is seen as being rather remote, by its distance from Korea, access to civilization, and by its people-to-people exchange. However, the ambassador says the 53 single states have more to offer than Koreans would think of: Abundant natural and agricultural resources, for example.
Africa has abundant natural resource reserves, mining is a booming industry, and Korea is one of the big importers.
Cote d'ivoire has oil reserves from which approximately 200 million barrels of petroleum are produced daily, and is rich in natural gas, gold, diamonds, iron, nickel, etc, and Korea imports a significant quantity of manganese. It is the biggest producer and No. 1 exporter of cocoa, supplying nearly 40 percent of global consumption. The country is also the third largest producer of coffee in the world.
The ambassador hopes that Africa-promoting efforts will lead to stronger economic ties with Korea, especially direct investment from Korea.
Korea and Cote d'ivoire established diplomatic ties in 1961. Korea opened a mission in Cote d'ivoire in 1966, and Cote d'ivoire opened its embassy in Seoul in 1997.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the trade in 2007 was a little over $58 million. Direct investment from Korea remains almost zero.
"We are eager to learn from the Korean experience, but we currently need Korean investment in all sectors, mainly in the mining sector, construction center and IT sector," the ambassador said. Cote d'ivoire just opened a free IT zone, where "we are hoping Korean businesses will come and invest in our project," Koffi said.
A new capital and seaport construction are other projects where he seeks attention from Korea.
One achievement so far is an agreement with the Korea Electric Power Corp. last year on the development of electric energy.
"There's no restriction in our openness. And our friendship with Korea shouldn't just remain on diplomatic ties," he said.