The First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of South Korea, Mr Choi Jong-Kun, has disclosed that the trade volume between both countries has reached $500 million.
Mr Jong – Kun said there was the need to increase the trade volume between both countries.
He spoke with select reporters during his visit to Nigeria last week.
Jong – Kun said: “One is economic area. Obviously, you provide us with a vast market already. More than half of our foreign construction sales in Africa comes from Nigeria and you are building infrastructure projects and our construction companies are good builders; reliable area.
“Our volume of trade is not that big. Maybe $400 – $500 million dollars but we need to be able to increase that.”
He said Korea is commtteed to strengthening bilateral relations with Nigeria in areas of cultural orientation, health, economic and technological development.
According to Mr Jong – Kun, Nigeria as a giant of Africa is very important to South Korea.
He said: “We will strengthen the relationship on the economic area, because, Nigeria provides us with a very vast market. More than half of our foreign construction sale in Africa comes from Nigeria.
“The second area is the trans-national security, especially in the gulf of Guinea, a lot of hijacks happen in the gulf, thus, we need to protect our fishing industry in the gulf.
“Another area is, culture and people to people exchange, which will include financing education exchange between universities and students, because, Nigeria offers meaningful African cultures to Koreans and East Asia people
“And as a nation of high technology, we are willing to offer training assistance to future leaders of Nigeria and that is people to people exchange.”
He said that they would have a cultural delegation from Nigeria tour the US and Korea.
He explained that in December, his country would host a Korea-Africa Forum.
“In the Forum, we will have discussions and collaborations in many areas like economic, trade, culture and many others.
“We have founded Korea-Africa Foundation to boost cultural awareness between Africa and Korea. It is devoted to cultural orientation,’’ Mr Jong – Kun said.
According to him, technology is an exclusive goods that can be transferred, adding that high technology companies from Korea would come and start operation with talented, smart and innovative young Nigerians.
He said Nigerian students could come over to Korea to get high degrees in technology, stressing that Korea had good training courses on high-tech.
On the COVID-19 pandemic, Jong – Kun said South Korea had supplied testing kits, face masks and other medical supplies worth over 200 million dollars to about 53 countries in Africa, including Nigeria.
He explained that his country followed the principles of 3Ts (Testing, Tracing and Treatment) in addressing the pandemic, adding that the country would soon be involved in large production of vaccines.
“The only way to fight the COVID-19 is maintaining the 3Ts and vaccines. Nobody is safe till everyone is safe. So providing vaccines is very important.
“However, we are closely working with the United States and our European partners to build a vaccine factory.
“Already we are the second-largest vaccines producers in the world. So we have the capacity,’’ Jong – Kun added.
