Ecuador wants to learn from S. Korea's economic success: minister

All Headlines 06:00 August 09, 2018

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- Ecuador wants to learn from South Korea's rapid economic development and expand trade and investment opportunities between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the two nations, a government policymaker from the Latin American nation said.

Eva Garcia Fabre, Ecuador's Minister of Industries and Productivity, expressed the hope after signing a memorandum of understanding on SME cooperation with Choi Su-gyu, South Korean vice minister of SMEs and startups, at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday.

"South Korea's economic success story is an inspiration to Ecuador, and we want to share the know-how to develop the Ecuadorian economy," the senior official said after the signing ceremony. "Through this MOU, we'd like to share the business strategy of SMEs and learn how the Korean government designs its economic policy and implements it."

While Ecuador has mostly exported oil and agricultural products to South Korea, Eva said she hopes the agreement will boost bilateral cooperation in advanced technologies, infrastructure and renewable energy fields.

"We aim to develop new technologies and create value-added products to target bigger markets," she said. "Our development goal is creating quality products through innovation."

The minister said Ecuador is especially interested in promoting trade and expanding technology cooperation in innovative areas, such as electric vehicles, smart grids and telecommunications.

"This MOU is important because about 95 percent of companies in Ecuador are small and medium-sized companies," Garcia Fabre said. "I hope the two nations support trade and investment opportunities of SMEs by sharing technologies in various fields and operating training programs."

The two nations forged diplomatic relations in 1962 and have held five rounds of negotiations for the Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement, which is aimed at boosting cooperation and technical support between the two nations.