서울국제포럼 The Seoul Forum for International Affairs(SFIA)

 The Korea Times   | 송경진 (사)혁신경제 사무총장, 파이낸셜뉴스 글로벌이슈센터장, 전 세계경제연구원 원장

  입력 2022.08.17

Africa was long known as a continent with rich natural resources and potential but largely underdeveloped and forgotten. It is now striving quickly to transform itself into a continent that will play a bigger role in shaping the future of the international order. It has 54 sovereign states with an equal number of voting power in the United Nations system and major international organizations. It is the second most populous continent after Asia, with 1.4 billion people as of 2021, accounting for about 18 percent of the world's population.

Korea, having pledged to become a bridge between developed and developing countries, is well-positioned to support African efforts to stride forward. Substantial progress has been made in the last two decades. Korea and the African Union launched the Korea-Africa Forum in 2006 and held their fifth such forum this past March in Seoul. Now a quarter of Korea's Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated for partnerships with Africa, up from 15 percent in 2010.

However, the considerable increase in Korea's ODA budget for Africa has, as of yet, coincided with an increase in trade with and investments on the continent. Only 1 percent, or $9.9 billion, of Korea's trade, took place with Africa as of 2020 and a mere 0.7 percent, or $3 billion, of Korea's overseas investment headed to Africa between 2011 and 2020.

Korea-Africa bilateral trade and investment has plenty of room for growth, as compared to that of China and Japan. China has been aggressively expanding its presence in Africa, with its bilateral trade amounting to $256 billion in 2021. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) poured $7.2 billion into Sub-Saharan Africa, 15.2 percent of the total amount of BRI investments in 2020. Japan's trade with Africa stood at $16.5 billion in 2020.

Given this situation, it is a welcome step that the Fifth Korea-Africa Forum agreed to explore the possibility of pursuing a Korea-Africa free trade agreement (FTA).

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기사원문출처: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2022/08/791_334478.html