President Yoweri Museveni has said South Korea was able to grow to become 28th richest nation in the world due to discipline and hard work.
The president made this revelation at State House Entebbe during meeting with the visiting South Korea President Park Geun Hye.
South Korea and Uganda are likely to sign a bilateral cooperation in trade, science, technology and health sectors.
The people of Uganda and myself welcome you to our country on this historic visit. We salute the Korean people who have, within a period of just 60 years, risen from destitution and poverty to the 28th richest country in the world today in terms of the size of the GDP and GDP per capita. The Korean people were able to achieve this on account of discipline, hard work and the development of the human resource through education. Your father, General Park Chung Hee, played a decisive role in that transformation.
President Museveni said the Korean people are an ancient people whose specific identity can be traced as far back as 1392. But unfortunately, their nation was divided at the end of the 2nd World War. Museveni said the African patriots, always support the peaceful reunification of the Korean nation.
Museveni informed his South Korean counterpart that Uganda is undergoing socio-economic transformation through universal education, modernization of infrastructure and the modernization of agriculture. “With improved infrastructure, we are now able to address the issues of industrialization, the modernization of services and the development of ICT”
There is a great potential for co-operation between South Korea and Uganda for the mutual benefit of both countries.
Uganda and South Korea can buy from and sell to one another. Uganda, with a population of 38 million people, that will be about 100 million by 2050, is, moreover, part of the huge African continent with a current population of 1.25 billion people. By 2050, the population of the African continent will be 2.5 billion people.
South Korea is part of the huge Asian continent and its population of 4.4 billion people. The potential for the two areas is huge. I am glad you came to visit us so that we put more bricks on that potentially very lucrative co-operation.
This visit makes her the second South Korean president to come to Uganda since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1963.
Park arrived from Ethiopia, where she addressed the African Union, and will also be visiting Kenya on Monday.
