Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides)- Asia and Africa are ever closer. After the Beijing summit between China and 48 African countries (see Fides 6 November 2006) now South Korea is hosting a Korea-Africa Meeting in Seoul on 8 November to which various heads of state are invited including Nigeria’s president Olusegun Obasanjo, Republic of Congo president Denis Sassou-Nguesso; Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete; John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana; and Benin president Thomas Boni Yayi.
S. Korea has already signed a preliminary 10 billion dollar contract to build a railway line in Nigeria in exchange for a share in the country’s oil business. S. Korea will provide Nigeria with long term loans at a low interest rate to finance the construction of a 1,500 km railway between Port Harcourt on the west coast of Nigeria and Maiduguri in the east. In exchange Seoul is allowed to purchase a share (unspecified amount) of Nigerian oil fields.
The agreement should become operative in the early months of 2007. President Obasanjo has also asked the S. Korean government to invest in roads, hydro-electric plants and more railways.
Korean investment in African countries increased in recent years. In 2004, S. Korea began exploiting oil in Benin, and in March this year a S. Korean company obtained an oil-prospecting contract in reserves on the Nigerian coast.
Asian countries whose industrial capacity has grown in recent decades are always on the look out for new sources of energy and prime material. Africa is seen as a giant “reservoir” of natural resources.
Nigeria alone in May this year sold 16 oil licences, mostly to Asian companies, Chinese and Indian. In exchange Abuja was promised over 20 billion dollars for the construction of refineries, power stations and other infrastructures. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 7/11/2006 righe 32 parole 393)
