33 African finance ministers, ambassadors, heads of pan-African institutions and NGOs, CEOs and Korean private sector leaders gathered in Busan for the 7th KOAFEC Ministerial Conference.
The African Development Bank Group and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Korea are co-hosting the three-day conference under the theme"Embracing a Sustainable Future: Just Energy Transition and Agricultural Transformation in Africa." This embraces these two critical development priorities for Africa.
In his opening remarks, African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina urged delegates to seize the conference as a critical opportunity to galvanise support for several objectives: achieving universal energy access in Africa, advancing a just energy transition and transforming the African continent into the breadbasket of the world.
Adesina described the KOAFEC conference as a good opportunity to discuss progress on relations between Korea and Africa, development challenges and opportunities in Africa, and a chance for all parties to continue to work together to accelerate the growth and development of Africa. The K-Rice belt project also has parallels with the African Development Bank's flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation programme. The TAAT Rice Compact continues to collaborate with the Korea-Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative through AfricaRice. TAAT supports KAFACI's network of 13 African countries through workshops, joint planning, and regular interaction.
REWARD targets double cropping and yields on 750,000 hectares of irrigated land. One million rice farmers will benefit, and 30% of these farmers are women. The initiative will push total paddy production to 10.5 million tons per year or 53 million tons by the end of the five-year programme in 2028.Korea has been a strong and consistent supporter of the African Development Bank Group. The country strongly supported the Bank's general capital increase in 2019.
He said much progress had been made since the African Development Bank launched its New Deal on Energy for Africa in 2016. He explained that while the percentage of those with access to electricity had since increased from 35% to 56%, there was still much to do.