President Park Geun-hye speaks during the Ethiopia-Korea Business Forum in Addis Ababa on May 27. The president stressed the importance of forming collaborative partnerships between companies from the two countries.
President Park Geun-hye stressed the importance of collaborative partnerships between Korean and Ethiopian companies at the Ethiopia-Korea Business Forum in Addis Ababa on May 27 during her state visit to the East African nation.
Reminding the attendees that the friendship between Korea and Ethiopia has been forged in blood, despite their geographical distance, the president said that the two countries have great potential for collaborative partnerships. “Businesses in our two countries will develop and find new markets and engines of economic growth once they trust each other and collaborate closely,” she said.
The president quoted an Ethiopian proverb, as well. Saying that, “A scrap of thread, gathered, can catch a lion,” she pointed out that cooperation can help achieve even improbable goals.
As for specific measures and areas of collaboration, she suggested that the two nations widen their bilateral trade and expand investments in each other’s economies, all while diversifying collaboration. She said that collaboration should move beyond the construction of infrastructure, like roads, transportation, electricity grids and land management, to include health and medical care and a proper response to climate change.
President Park Geun-hye speaks during the Ethiopia-Korea Business Forum in Addis Ababa on May 27.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who also attended the forum, requested that Korean businesses invest in Ethiopia just as they invest in their motherland. He promised the Ethiopian government’s support for Korean businesses, too.
Some 260 businesspeople, including the Korean and Ethiopian leaders, attended the forum. Business-to-business counseling sessions were held alongside the forum, with about 40 Korean businesses and 200 buyers from Ethiopia and neighboring countries taking part.
By Chang Iou-chung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Cheong Wa Dae
icchang@korea.kr
