From Abuja, Kenneth Udeh
The Africa Korea Economic Development Association, AKEDA has lauded the recent top level pre-summit meeting which had African ambassadors and high ranking government officials in attendance.
The meeting was organised by the government of the Republic of Korea, as a prelude to the upcoming Korea Africa Summit scheduled to be held from June 4 and 5, 2024.
AKEDA described the engagement as a demonstration of strong commitment by both partners to implement the outcomes of the proposed Summit.
The Nigeria chapter of AKEDA a private public sector group in a statement on Wednesday, in Abuja signed by its chairman, Yucee Uwah, said that the pre-summit meeting commended the attendance of African Ambassadors and top officials from 44 African countries, Korean government officials, and representatives of Japanese government.
With the theme: “The Future We Make Together: Shared Growth, Sustainability and Solidarity” the summit is expected to be graced by heads of states and governments of 54 African countries, top level officials, business leaders, private sectors, investors, multilateral development banks, United Nations system, and other development actors.
AKEDA’S statement read, “We acknowledge this development as indicative of commitment by Korea and Africa to forge a veritable platform for delivering an impactful summit aimed at fostering partnership, collaborations, mutual respect for accelerated development, and sustainable outcomes for peoples of Africa and Korea.
“The Korea Africa Summit 2024 would set the benchmarking and template for collaborative partnership between Africa and other countries seeking multilateralism and development framework as well as open vista of collaborations and partnership between Korea and Africa.”
Yucee added that the meeting shows a strong indication that commitments and resolutions will be implemented by both parties, and drive development outcomes.
“The Summit will facilitate and accelerate development objectives for both Korea and Africa in an accountable and sustainable manner.
“Additionally, this collaborative approach adopted by the parties indicates a new vista in multilateralism as collective crafting of the summit agenda, reinforces ownership, collectivism by Korea and Africa fostering smooth implementations of agreed resolutions, decisions and outcomes to fast track the much needed development.” AKEDA said.
AKEDA’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea has affiliates chapters in 37 African countries, advised African governments, participating at the upcoming summit to establish at continental and country levels for post-summit implementation and monitoring framework, as well as ensuring smooth operationalization, assessment of decisions, and outcomes.
“Implementation strategy is a key factor in development, hence, the need for the African Union (AU) to put in place a post-summit framework to ensure that decisions and resolutions and overall outcomes of the summit are implemented to drive development of Africa.” , the statement read.
AKEDA further added that Africa must evolve a novel approach to development by embracing result based engagements within the international community that prioritizes the era of participating in summit for sake of participation but effective participation commensurate with development outcomes that impacts on development objectives, economic development, and livelihoods of its 2.3 billion citizens across Africa.