The Government of Republic of Korea has reiterated its commitment to strengthen bilateral relations with Nigeria in the areas of economy and technology, health and cultural orientation.
The 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Choi Jong Kun, told journalists in Abuja on Friday that Nigeria is very important to South Korea.
“We will strengthen relationship on 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 hijack happens 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 Asian people,” local media reports on Friday quoted Choi as saying.
According to him, a cultural delegation from Nigeria will be touring the US and South Korea and that in December, South Korea would host a Korea-Africa Forum.
“In the Forum, we will have discussions and collaborations in many areas like economy, 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,’’ Choi added.
In the area of technology transfer, Choi disclosed that technology is an exclusive good that can be transferred and that high technology companies from South Korea would come and start operation with talented, smart and innovative young Nigerians.
He said Nigerian students could come over to Korea to get higher degrees in technology, stressing that Korea has good training courses on high-tech.
On COVID-19 pandemic, Choi said that South Korea was closely working with the United States and our European partners to build a vaccine factory and that South Korea is “the second largest vaccines producers in the world”.
He also said that South Korea had supplied testing kits, face masks and other medical supplies worth over $200 million to about 53 countries in Africa including Nigeria.
GIK/APA