Comprised of 80 members... the African Development Bank is one of the biggest financial instiutions
in the region.
It's goal: creating a pool of knowledge... to support various projects as well as economic
growth and development on the continent.
Our Kim Ji-yeon sat down with the incumbent President of the ADB, to discuss the partnership
between Korea and Africa.
Hello President Akinwumi Adesina, thank you for sitting down with me.
Great pleasure to be with you.
It goes without saying the potential of Africa's economies is immense with their vast natural
resources, diverse cultures and geographic advantages, some of the aspects South Korea
relatively lacks...
In the case of Korea, it was a donor recipient country and it has developed immensely over
the past several decades.
What does that industrialization process mean for Africa?
Every time I look at Korea, I'm always amazed.
I look at the per capita GDP of Korea in 1963, it was 100-dollars per person.
You look at it today, it's about 31-thousand...
And the key is the lesson from that is that vision matters, political commitment matters,
consistency matters...
We have a fantastic partnership with the government of Korea in many areas...
In a jointly funded by KOAFEC with us in Tunisia, where they're using drones technology to help
with the monitoring of the potential agriculture all across Tunisia.
I want to see a lot of joint ventures, young people and those in Korea, not aid-dependent
partnership.
I don't think aid-dependent Africa ever develop with aid, no.
Africa will develop through discipline and investment and that's what we're trying to
do.
South Korea hosted the annual meeting of the African Development Bank last year.
What particularly stood out in the meeting were the calls made by member states for consistent
policies that can withstand changing African governments.
Do you think governance reform is key in carrying out the developmental goals set by the Bank?
For me, one of my memories from Busan was the great KOAFEC meeting we had... to discuss
with Korea about first and foremost learning from Korea as an experience and looking for
financial agreements, cooperative agreements and the work we can do together to fastrack
Africa's development.
Stability is really key, policy consistency is key.
Africa is actually doing so well right now in terms of that.
You see a lot of democratic elections been held...
One-third of all the global business, investment, regulatory reforms were actually done in Africa
so the environment for investment couldn't be better.
Seoul's initiatives in Africa such as the Saemaul Undong Movement, Korea-Africa Aid
and Investment and Knowledge Sharing Program are being carried out.
Do you think these initiatives are helpful in strengthening inclusive growth in Africa?
Absolutely.
I think the Saemaul Undong is a great program.
It's a program that allows people to see that they can do great things by having confidence
in themselves and also on how they work together, the sense of community.
Countries where we've worked on this together like in Ethiopia and Cote d'Ivoire have been
very successful.
Equatorial Guinea is to host this year's annual meeting in Malabo.
What do you expect in the next round?
The focus in going to be on regional integration.
And this is important because Africa just launched a continential free trade area, it's
going to be worth 3-point-3-trillion dollars.
That is the largest free trade area in the world since the WTO was created in the 1940s...
That tells you that there's a lot of opportunities in various sectors across Africa.
Thank you for your time, President Adesina.
Pleasure being with you.