KITA (Chairman: Jin Sik Yoon), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, the Korea Council on Latin America & The Carribean and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) co-hosted the 29th Korea - Latin American Business Forum on Friday, 28 November at COEX.
This year's forum marks the 29th anniversary ever since the forum kicked off in 1997. Nine ambassadors from the Latin American region, including H.E. Márcia Donner Abreu, the Brazilian ambassador and Latin American experts from home and abroad attended the forum and shared information on up-to-date market trends, growing business sectors and strategies for entering the Latin American market.
The Latin American region is a big market with roughtly 700 million people - approximately 8% of the global population. The region is also increasingly being regarded as a gateway to the market in the southern hemisphere. Being aware of the potential of the region, Korea signed an FTA with Chile in 2004 and additionally signed FTAs with Peru, Colombia, and a group of six Central American nations, thereby being equipped with more institutional meaures to expand trade with Latin American countries.
In his welcome remarks, Gi Hyun Kim, the Vice President for International Cooperation at KITA mentioned, "Going beyond an traditional form of economic cooperation centred on trade of goods, an expansion of the scope of cooperation is essential from AI, energy to supply chain sectors". He also stresssed, "Immense synergy will be created once Latin American countries tap into Korean technological excellence and experience to push forward with their key national projects such as encouraging the growth of the renewable energy industry, building and upgrading key infrastructures and upgrading the rare mineral value chain".