Standard Chartered Bank Korea held on July 3 a press conference at the Westin Chosun Seoul Hotel with a title “Africa, the Continent of Possibilities.” The bank arranged the meeting in order to support Korean companies’ effort to enter the African market where Korea lags behind other pioneering countries such as China and India.

Seoul, Korea ¶ July 04, 2012 -- Standard Chartered Bank Korea held on July 3 a press conference at the Westin Chosun Seoul Hotel with a title “Africa, the Continent of Possibilities.” The bank arranged the meeting in order to support Korean companies’ effort to enter the African market where Korea lags behind other pioneering countries such as China and India.

Richard Hill, president and CEO of Standard Chartered Korea said, “Our bank has capabilities and experience to help Korea increase its presence in Africa. With the history of 150 years in Africa, we have an unparalleled network of 170 offices in 16 African nations.”

According to the bank’s research division, the bilateral trade volume has risen four-fold for ten years from US$5.7 billion in 2000 to $22.2 billion. Still this is dwarfed by the likes of EU ($265 billion), China ($166 billion), and India ($57 billion). In 2011, Korea recorded a trade surplus of $10.2 billion with Africa. Korea’s export items consist mostly of manufacturing goods (95%) while raw materials imports from Africa between 2005 and 2010 account for 87 percent of the total.

The major trading partners include Liberia (33.2%), South Africa (24.2%), Nigeria (14.9%), and Egypt (10.9%), which show excessive reliance on a few countries. In the press conference, a presenter from Hyundai Engineering gave a successful example of winning the geothermal power plant in Kenya with the critical help of Standard Chartered.

Sean Chung (press@whowired.com)