Student Corner Pay Attention to Latin America

By Ko Han-sol

When I started learning Spanish, I did not know much about Latin America. I knew that people in Latin America looked different and were the best soccer players. I had also heard about Che Guevara, but that was all. I had no idea how these people lived or what their culture was about, until I went to Mexico and Ecuador. I had never been interested in their culture, history, or anything else. This continent was originally far away from my interests.

I believe this is not just about me, but all of us. I never learned anything about Latin culture or people at school. I watched some worldwide tour programs about them on TV, but it was not good enough to understand and even attract my attention.

We have disregarded Latin America for a long time. It might be because its countries have been not significant economically and also they are some distance away geographically. Now, however, we have begun acknowledging the importance of Latin Amercia. Since South Korea signed its first ``Free Trade Agreement'' with Chile in 2004, Roh´s administration has been searching for strong economic relations with Mexico and other Latin American countries.

There are two reasons why we should take Latin America into account. They have huge amount of natural resources such as oil. Plus, they are still in the transitional development stage. A lot of Latin American countries produce oil _ especially Mexico and Venezuela are in the top 10 international exporters alongside Middle East countries. Nonetheless, most of them do not have their own refinery facilities and technology, which makes them rely on international oil corporations such as Chevron, Exxon, BP, Shell, and Conoco.

Still, there are some big issues between Latin oil producing countries and Big Five. Crude oil needs to be chemically processed and refined into useful petroleum products such as gasoline. These oligopoly giants take too much of a stake from the refining oil project. Latin American countries are trying to increase their stake or find other cooperators to meet their needs. In Venezuela, Chevron, BP, and Statoil made a deal to reduce their stake, whereas Exxon and Conoco refused Venezuela's new proposal and decided to leave.

How about us? South Korea is the fifth biggest oil importer in the world without producing any amount of oil. However, considering the fact that we have refinery capacity, we can be an ideal substitute for them. This is not an option. We have to make our own move.

Having a lack of infrastructure is one of the reasons Latin America remains undeveloped. Yet, they are about to undertake new steps to improve their poor industrial conditions. There are also negotiations going on among Latin American nations to model their own multilateral trade bloc after the European Union. These future economic ties are expected to produce extravagant effects on their economies, because they will include having a common currency, and a free flow of their labor forces and investments.

Their economies are growing quickly, and trading volume between Korea and Latin America has increased every single year. Their politics are moving toward focusing on economic growth more than anything else and they desperately need an economic partner to develop their economies.

Simultaneously, they are seeking advice on how our economy flourished after being devastated during the Korean War (1950-53), and how we overcame the 1998 financial crisis. Most countries in Latin America are heavily indebted and have been paying interest to the IMF, World Bank, and United States.

We have long been looking for an alternate market. The population of Latin America is almost 600 million, one tenth of the world's population. More important, this market has enormous potential. These people prefer Korean-made automobiles and electronic goods because they are cheap and reliable. Latin youngsters even tend to spend more money for their cellular phones from LG and Samsung.

This is a time to have a close relationship with Latin American countries. We need what they have and vice versa. Let's take one step forward toward Latin America.

kohansol@hotmail.com

Ko Han-sol is a senior studying business administration at Konkuk University in Seoul.