More Interest from AsiaSEOUL: South Korea's foreign minister will make a rare visit to Africa in April, the foreign ministry said Monday, as Seoul joins Beijing in the scramble for access to the continent's vast natural resources.
Kim Sung-Hwan will travel to Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Ethiopia between April 2 and 9, to meet Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba and Congo's President Joseph Kabila.
His visit comes as China, the world's second-largest economy, has steadily deepened ties with Africa, which is rich in the energy resources and raw materials that it needs to fuel its breakneck growth.
Kim, in the first visit by Seoul's top diplomat to Ethiopia, will also meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi before talks with the African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping, the ministry said in a statement.
Talks will be held on oil exploration projects in Gabon and the building of infrastructure in Congo in return for energy deals, a ministry official said.
"We plan to actively encourage South Korean companies take a plunge in Africa, the world's emerging economy rich with energy resources," the ministry said in a statement.
"The trip... is aimed at helping South Korean companies win business deals there and sharing the experience of our economic development with Africa," it said.
No South Korean foreign minister has visited Congo since 1986 and Gabon since 1980, and the trip comes at a time of intense rivalry over Africa's untapped resources.
Chinese capital has poured into the continent despite criticism in the West of Beijing's support for the hardline regimes of leaders such as Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
China pumped a total of 9.3 billion dollars in direct investment into Africa by the end of 2009, according to a state report published in December last year.
From 2000 to 2009, China cancelled more than 300 debts of 35 African countries worth 18.96 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), it said.
India has also been securing land and resource deals in Africa in a bid to maintain its growth.
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