Opening remarks by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh at the 2008 Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference: Seoul, Korea 28 October 2008

Abstract

Opening Remarks by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh at the 2008 Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference. Mr. Janneh, on his remarks outlined that; Africa may be affected by an escalating crisis that has already spread to the real economy in from the financial meltdown in key countries. We are already witnessing falls in commodity prices, which will hurt exporting countries, while investment, official development assistance, remittances, trade finance and other financial flows to the continent may dry up. Thus, this crisis could ultimately hamper on-going efforts to reduce poverty and accelerate progress towards achieving the other MDGs. We strongly empathize with Korea on the recent challenges that it is facing because of the global financial crisis and wish the Government and people of Korea every success in their efforts to contain its effects on this economy. We are however extremely confident in the overall resilience of the Korean economy whose remarkable transformation over the past forty years can be termed as nothing short of an economic miracle.