Addis Ababa, 14 July 2014 (WIC) – State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Berhane Gebre-Christos held talks with a South Korean delegation lead by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lee Kyung-Soo on Friday (July 11).
Welcoming the Deputy Minister, Ambassador Berhane noted that the two countries share a historic and strong relationship.
He expressed Ethiopia’s strong desire to draw lessons from Korea’s spectacular economic development.
He also stressed the need to expand areas of cooperation between Ethiopia and Korea, particularly in trade and development and said Ethiopia would like to see more investment in-flow from South Korean businesses. He asked the South Korean government to encourage this.
Ambassador Berhane emphasized that the Ethiopian government highly appreciated the support provided by Korea to a number of infrastructure projects across the country.
He also used the opportunity to brief the Korean Deputy Minister on several major economic projects currently in progress. Lee Kyung-Soo paid homage to the Ethiopian soldiers who fought and sacrificed their lives in Korea for “freedom and democracy”, and noted that his visit to Ethiopia was important “to reconfirm my government’s commitment to strengthen bilateral relations in exploring new areas of cooperation.”
He said South Korea was committed to share its experience in nation building, industrialization and technological development, and it would extend support to the Mojo-Hawassa railway project and the installation of electric transmission lines in various parts of the country.
He said it was important to maximize synergy and interaction in economic areas and added that Ethiopia’s robust growth was indication of a bright future for the country.
The Deputy Minister also appreciated the contribution of Ethiopia to help create peace in East Africa, in South Sudan and Somalia in particular.
He said South Korea would like to work in close cooperation with Ethiopia in international and regional issues.(MoFA)