Angola strengthening ties with Korea

Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco President of the Republic of Angola

The following is an article contributed by the Embassy of the Republic of Angola in Seoul on the occasion of the 42nd anniversary of independence and Angola National Day. ― ED.

African country celebrates 42nd anniversary of National Day.

Angola, a country located in western part of Southern Africa, celebrated the 42nd anniversary of national independence on Nov. 11. The Angolan people liberated itself forever from foreign domination and proclaimed freedom and national independence from Portugal after five centuries of colonization.

The declaration of the independence of Angola was led by Dr. Agostinho Neto, the leader of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola or MPLA, who had a short mandate of approximately four years as he died from illness in Moscow on Sept. 10, 1979.

President Agostinho Neto was replaced by Jose Eduardo dos Santos who governed the country until August 2017 and settled an independent, free, united and peaceful country after 27 years of civil war (1975-2002).

On Aug. 23, 2017, Angola held general elections in which the candidate of the ruling party MPLA for president of the Republic, General Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco was the winner. The president of the Republic is supported by Vice-President Bornito de Sousa Baltazar Diogo.

The National Assembly is composed by 220 seats and the ruling party MPLA obtained a majority of 150 seats, followed by UNITA with 51 seats, CASA-CE with 16 seats, PRS with two seats and FNLA with one seat.

Angola-Korea relations

This year, Angola and South Korea celebrate 25 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The relations between the two countries were strengthened from 2001, after the signature of the General Agreement on Economic, Technical and Scientific Cooperation during the visit of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos at the invitation of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

In the framework of expanding the cooperation between the two countries, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Luanda was officially established in December 2007 and the Diplomatic Mission of the Republic of Angola in Seoul, in November 2008.

Since then, the development of bilateral relations has strengthened and visas between the two countries on diplomatic and service passports were abolished in order to facilitate the exchange of cooperation in the public sector.

After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, a number of ministers of the Republic of Angola visited South Korea from 2016 to 2017, including the Ministry of Former Combatants and War Veterans, the Ministry of Territory Administration, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of External Relations.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the ministries of defense of both countries to expand cooperation in the field of armed forces.

An MOU and respective action plan on the capacity building, exchange of experience and training were also initiated between the two ministries of former combatants in 2016, and 31 officials from the Ministry of Former Combatants and War Veterans of Angola were benefited from a six weeks capacity building program at Koreatech University in May this year.

The volume of trade between the two countries reached $2 billion per year until 2015. Since then, due to the drop in oil prices the level of trade between the two countries was affected. It is very important to mention that more than 90 percent of the oil tankers, LNG carriers, drillship vessels and maritime platforms have been made by the South Korean shipbuilding industry.

A large number of Korean companies are active in Angola and the car market is led by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, and the fisheries by Interburgo.

Through Eximbank and other financial cooperation agencies, the government of South Korea has been supporting Angolan project initiatives in order to develop the fishing industry, primary education, vocational training, safety improvement (closed circuit televisions) and mechanization of agro-industry (agricultural machines).

In addition, many Angolan students are benefiting scholarships from private and public universities of South Korea.

Angolan and Korean business leaders and friendship associations are currently engaged in establishing a chamber of commerce in order to expand business cooperation between the two countries.

The government of the Republic of Angola and the government of the Republic of Korea have had two bilateral commission sessions in 2001 and 2009, and there is a prominence of the 3rd commission to be held in Luanda and it is expected the signature of the Reciprocal Investment Protection Agreement among other important decisions to be taken.

Within the framework of a new political cycle in the Republic of Angola, the President Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco included in his inauguration speech addressing on South Korea as a strategic country for foreign policy.