S. Korea calls for expansion of economic ties with Latin America
- 5 years ago
Around 900 ministers, government officials and private sector representatives from Korea, Latin America and the Caribbean are gathered in Seoul.
They are here for a gathering to promote a mutually beneficial economic partnership.
Hong Yoo takes us to that Business summit.
South Korean and Latin American and Caribbean countries need to diversify their cooperation and expand further into the private sector.
That's according to South Korea's finance minister Hong Nam-ki.
Hong said that economic cooperation between the two countries used to center around resources, agricultural products, and manufacturing businesses.
But from now on, cooperation must broaden to high-tech and service industries, infrastructure and many other sectors.
And among these sectors, he pointed specifically to new industries of the 4th Industrial Revolution, e-commerce, and bio health.
"Diverse finance channels must be developed such as the participation of South Korean companies that are rich in technology and experience in public-private partnerships, as well as the expansion of syndicate loans from Korea's economic development cooperation fund and the Inter-American Development Bank."
Trade between the two regions has grown four-fold from 10 billion to 40 billion U.S. dollars in the last 20 years.
And representatives participating in the 5th Korea-LAC Business Summit 2019 emphasized that the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution like blockchain and artificial intelligence, can take those relations to the next level.
But in order to take advantage of what the other side has to offer, the two sides need to work on certain problems such as trade costs.
"Like we said before, trade costs amount to 189 percent of the value of the goods traded. So that is two times that are lost in costs such as logistics and tariffs, information etc.
I think that is where we need to work on, in overcoming and lowering those logistics and transportation costs and those tariffs.
So we should foster more of that to open more our economies and really look for win-win situation for economic growth development for both our regions."
With this summit highlighting the importance of partnerships between the two regions, Latin American companies are looking forward to opportunities to build strong, high-quality networks with South Korean companies and investors.
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.
They are here for a gathering to promote a mutually beneficial economic partnership.
Hong Yoo takes us to that Business summit.
South Korean and Latin American and Caribbean countries need to diversify their cooperation and expand further into the private sector.
That's according to South Korea's finance minister Hong Nam-ki.
Hong said that economic cooperation between the two countries used to center around resources, agricultural products, and manufacturing businesses.
But from now on, cooperation must broaden to high-tech and service industries, infrastructure and many other sectors.
And among these sectors, he pointed specifically to new industries of the 4th Industrial Revolution, e-commerce, and bio health.
"Diverse finance channels must be developed such as the participation of South Korean companies that are rich in technology and experience in public-private partnerships, as well as the expansion of syndicate loans from Korea's economic development cooperation fund and the Inter-American Development Bank."
Trade between the two regions has grown four-fold from 10 billion to 40 billion U.S. dollars in the last 20 years.
And representatives participating in the 5th Korea-LAC Business Summit 2019 emphasized that the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution like blockchain and artificial intelligence, can take those relations to the next level.
But in order to take advantage of what the other side has to offer, the two sides need to work on certain problems such as trade costs.
"Like we said before, trade costs amount to 189 percent of the value of the goods traded. So that is two times that are lost in costs such as logistics and tariffs, information etc.
I think that is where we need to work on, in overcoming and lowering those logistics and transportation costs and those tariffs.
So we should foster more of that to open more our economies and really look for win-win situation for economic growth development for both our regions."
With this summit highlighting the importance of partnerships between the two regions, Latin American companies are looking forward to opportunities to build strong, high-quality networks with South Korean companies and investors.
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.