The South African government has urged the Korean government to quadruple its development aid to Africa in the next three years, to enable the continent to realise its Millennium Development Goals.
Ebrahim Ebrahim, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, made the appeal today at the second Africa-Korea Forum in Seoul, Korea. The goals are a set of development targets - such as halving poverty - which the international community has set itself to attain by 2015.
Africa is considered the only continent not likely to reach many or perhaps any of these targets.
"The success and realisation of the commitments made in this forum could contribute significantly to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, whose target date is in six years' time," Ebrahim said.
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He also called upon Korea as an African partner to mobilise the international community to help Africa deal with the negative effects of climate change in its development.
"It is a fact that Africa is the worst affected by climate change, but contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions," he noted.
Ebrahim also welcomed Korea taking over the chair of the G20 summit next year. South Africa is a member of the G20.
He again appealed to Korea to help Africa in this forum.
"We expect the G20 to contribute to poverty reduction and development co-operation which are central to the fulfilment of the African agenda.
"We stand ready to work with Korea to ensure that African concerns are adequately addressed when Korea host the G20 summit in the second half of 2010."
And Ebrahim urged Korea to back the African Union's proposal to get two permanent seats for Africa on an expanded UN Security Council.
"The African continent is of a firm belief that the reform of the UN and its structures is crucial in ensuring representatively, accountability, transparency and effectiveness," he said.
Ebrahim also congratulated the Korean soccer team on qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa next year.
"South Africa acknowledges the successful World Cup hosted by Korea and Japan (in 2002) and appreciates the lessons learned from that experience," Ebrahim added.
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This article was originally published on page 2 of Daily News on November 24, 2009
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