Korea to host 2018 African Development Bank’s annual meetings

The city of Busan, South Korea, will host this year’s African Development Bank annual meetings scheduled for May

“Aside from the 2017 Winter Olympics, the annual meeting of the African Development Bank this May in Korea, is the most important event on our calendar,” says Kim Dong Yeon, Korean deputy prime minister and minister of strategy and finance.

Yeon disclosed this in Seoul, while hosting a delegation led by Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB. He said the meetings would provide Korea an opportunity to deepen relationships with the AfDB, African governments and the private sector.

Yeon mentioned that as part of a larger strategic engagement with Africa, Korea is interested in developing a Tech Corp human exchange and learning platform that would provide talented young Korean professionals with opportunities to serve in the public and private sector of the bank’s member nations.

On his part, Adesina noted that asymmetrical or insufficient information and communication about African investment opportunities was a problem that needed to be fixed. He said a bilateral Tech Corp exchange would provide talented young Africans with much-needed exposure and experiential learning in Korea.

During meetings with Suh Byung-Soo, Mayor of Busan, Korea’s technologically innovative ‘smart city,’ Adesina promoted the Bank’s African Investment Forum in November 2018, stating that Africa was open for business and that the forum would be ‘short on talk’ and ‘high on transactions and project pipelines.’

According to Mayor Byung-Soo, his country is highly interested in a Korea-Africa business forum that would open up doors for investment and development in Africa, and in leveraging opportunities for technological exchanges with Africa.

The African Development Bank team also visited Silla University, where school President Tae-Hak Park took the delegation on a tour of the country’s largest drone testing site and the University’s live simulation center. Silla is at the forefront of Korea’s industrial drone technology and the development of platforms supporting artificial intelligence, robotics, and Busan’s dynamic transition into a knowledge economy.

The Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank will hold from May 21 – 25, 2018.