'Now is the right time': Tunisian Ambassador on upcoming Korea-Africa summit

Diplomacy

Published: 20 Mar. 2024, 15:40 Updated: 20 Mar. 2024, 19:28

'Now is the right time': Tunisian Ambassador on upcoming Korea-Africa summit

Ambassador of Tunisia to Korea Kais Darragi speaks to the Korea JoongAng Daily during an interview at the Tunisian Embassy in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Monday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Now is the “right time” for Korea to become more involved in Africa, Kais Darragi, ambassador of Tunisia to Seoul, said ahead of the Korea-Africa summit slated for June.

Moving forward from "Afro-pessimism to Afro-optimism," the Korea-Africa summit could bring forward a “novel” partnership between Korea and many African countries, stressed Darragi.

The Korea-Africa summit, set for June, will see the Korean government inviting 54 African countries and joining hands with the public and private sectors to jointly look for trade and investment projects in Africa, a massive market that boasts a population of 1.4 billion.

Darragi laid out how African countries including Tunisia can cooperate more closely with Korea, what he hopes to see during the Korea-Africa summit and why the Korean development trajectory is a model example for African countries in an interview on Monday with the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Korea and Tunisia celebrated 55 years of diplomatic relations this year, and Darragi, a career diplomat, has been serving as ambassador to Seoul since August last year.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tunisian engineers work on the Airbus A320 at a Safran Aerospace facility in Grombalia, Tunisia. [EMBASSY OF TUNISIA]

Q: Ahead of the Korea-Africa Summit in June, what are you most anticipating in terms of agenda and discussions?

A: This is a very important summit, as it is a historical and pivotal moment for relations between Korea and Africa. A new partnership is going to be built, and I think the major concern from the African point of view is that this partnership has to bring some novelty — it has to be different from partnerships offered by many other countries. And I think that Korea has the assets to show the way for a new paradigm of cooperation, a product that is based on mutual understanding and is essentially a win-win relationship, different from previous partnerships which are based on a recipient-donor relationship.

What kind of novel partnership do you have in mind?

In my point of view, there are new opportunities in Africa, not only in natural resources and minerals. There are new opportunities with Africa emerging as a future powerhouse. What we used to call Afro-pessimism has given way to Afro-optimism now, with many experiences of development and moving up in global value chains. If I take my country, Tunisia, in terms of science, technology and research, there is potential to develop further scientific and technological cooperation. We have developed, for instance, an electronic procurement system that is modeled on the Korean model and is functioning quite well, and it has led to more transparency in transactions.

What key values do you think a Korea-Africa partnership should be based on?

Korea has gone through a very exceptional experience through colonization, through the struggle for independence and through a civil war. Korea has gone through many of the phases that a lot of African countries have gone through. So Africans identify with Korea and they could accept Korea in a more welcoming way than other partners, because they know that Korea does not have hegemonic intentions. And that is something we have to build on through cooperation and partnership between equals. The concept of ownership is important in this regard.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has been engaging in high-level exchanges with African countries more actively than any other previous administration since his inauguration in May 2022, and you’ve said previously that "it is the right moment for Korea to be more involved with Africa." Could you explain this further?

I think this is really the right moment — maybe it is a bit late, but it is always welcome. The advantage of having been a bit late is that Korea has learned from other experiences of other partnerships. It is timely, too, because Korea achieved a certain level of confidence and maturity in its international relations and in its aspirations to be an active member of the international community. It is also the right moment for Africa, because as I said, it is now moving forward with confidence beyond the stereotypes. Africa is no longer that land of strife and war. We have new economies developing and new market opportunities for Korean companies.

Sidi Bou Said, a town in Tunisia, is seen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. [EMBASSY OF TUNISIA]

What are some challenges — including tariffs — that should be overcome for Tunisia and Korea to further develop trade and eliminate obstacles?

I think there is first a question of image that we have to develop. Whether for Africa or Tunisia, there are some misunderstandings or misrepresentations of Africa. In Korea, there is a lack of visibility about Tunisia. In Tunisia, we offer many advantages for foreign investors including Korean companies. We have access to European markets because we have a free-trade agreement with the European Union. We also have access to Africa, through the African Continental FTA, and the Middle East.

On that point, what would you say is the most appealing elements of Tunisia as a market where Korean companies can seek profit?

With all the advantages we have to offer, Tunisia is also a country that has abundant human resources — well-educated, qualified labor. We are also working on arrangements for the protection and encouragement of investments. There are some barriers that still exist in terms of tariffs, in terms of the absence of favorable trade agreements, but we are working to try to overcome these obstacles.

Because there are many African countries looking to participate in the Korea-Africa summit, their interests and circumstances could very much differ. How do you anticipate that they will bring together a common ground during the summit?

With any summit of this kind there are always multilateral and bilateral aspects. But fortunately for Africa, it managed to develop a common agenda and to speak in one voice. So there are priorities that are already set and agreed on by all African countries. There is a common understanding of the priorities and the requirements for successful partners on the continental level that do not conflict with bilateral agendas.

Korea is the first country in the world that made the transition from being a recipient of official development assistance (ODA) to being a donor of ODA. How do you view Korea's growth trajectory as a model for African countries?

The development trajectory of Korea is quite exceptional. Korea wrote a book for development and showed new pathways for progress and social and economic development. This is an important lesson that could be of great interest to African countries and the African continent. For instance, Tunisia is a middle-income country and many African countries that used to be least developed countries are moving to the middle-income category. This is something that Korea has experienced too, in the 1960s. But the problem is what we call the middle-income trap, where countries fail to get out of the middle-income stage to reach a more developed stage. The solution that Korea has come to, relying more on technological content and science, is the way we are moving toward with Tunisia. We are encouraging innovation and relying on more sophisticated sectors of the economy.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]