Representative banks of Korea, China and Republic of South Africa gathered at the headquarters of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Lee Duk-Hoon, "Korea Eximbank") to promote the business expansion of their countries' companies into the African market.

Korea Eximbank announced on September 15 that the Bank signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for financial cooperation with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China(ICBC) and Standard Bank of South Africa. Chairman Lee Duk-Hoon met with the CEO of ICBC Yi Huiman and Robert Cleasby the partner of Standard Bank of South Africa at the Korea Eximbank and signed the MOU aimed at providing co-financing, sharing information, joint provision of non-financial services for the projects in Africa where Korean companies participate. The MOU opened the way for Korean companies to more actively enter into the infrastructure project market in Africa.

As a first step, Korea Eximbank will actively explore infrastructure project opportunities where both Korean and Chinese companies can participate, together with ICBC seeking to be a global financial institution by expanding into the African market. Korea Eximbank expects that ICBC will share information of policies, regulations, etc. of African countries by utilizing the business network of Standard Bank of South Africa in 20 African countries where ICBC is the largest shareholder and that Standard Bank of South Africa will function as a window for financing for Korean companies when they need to finance local costs for the projects they participate in Africa.

At the signing ceremony, Chairman Lee remarked, "Korea Eximbank has been endeavoring to help Korean companies to win project contracts by reinforcing financial support for the strategic industries, including infrastructure, in response against delayed or dwindling orders in oil and gas projects due to low oil prices." He added, "By establishing the cooperative relationship with ICBC and Standard Bank of South Africa, we have laid the groundwork for exploring infrastructure projects more swiftly where Korean companies can participate."

Africa is regarded as the last emerging market to which the world pays attention for its high growth potential coming from abundant resources and large population reaching 1 billion. However, in fact, it is not easy for Korean companies make inroads due to several risks such as weak economic structure and governance. Meanwhile, China has been actively participating in infrastructure projects in Africa backed by its state funds for economic assistance, which the country has been expanding in order to secure resources, etc.