Business leaders of South Korea and Ethiopia met in Addis Ababa on Friday on the sidelines of President Park Geun-hye's ongoing visit to the East African country and reached a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOUs).

The agreements were made during a business forum hosted by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in the Ethiopian capital with the participation of Park, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desaleg, and more than 250 business leaders from both countries, KITA officials said.

Ethiopia has made great strides to become one of Africa's fastest growing countries, with its gross domestic product (GDP) expanding more than 10 percent in the past six years, the KITA said.

"South Korean firms have an understanding of Ethiopia's economic policies, and thus we're the best business partners to achieve the goals together," said KITA Chairman Kim In-ho during his keynote speech.

Ethiopia -- five times the size of the Korean Peninsula -- is pushing to modernize its roads, electricity and other infrastructure. South Korean companies are seeking to participate in a highway project and others worth about $690 million.

"I believe today's event will act as a trigger to strengthen long-term cooperation between companies of both countries," the Ethiopian prime minister said.

The African nation has been seeking to establish a favorable business environment for foreign investors, he said.

Among the signed MOUs include one between the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of South Korea's largest business lobbies, and the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations to expand investment between the two countries.

Under the agreement, the two sides will work on bilateral economic cooperation in the private sector such as establishing a private committee.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Trade also signed three MOUs with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and the Korea Federation of Textile Industries.

Major South Korean builders -- GS Engineering & Construction Co. and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. -- recently inked deals to construct highways and plants there. Also, major local tech firms Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics CO. are working to expand business opportunities there.

Additionally, earlier in the day the Seoul government said it signed a series of MOUs with Ethiopia to strengthen cooperation in the health and social welfare sectors, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

The MOUs call for, among other things, advancing a broad range of joint research and public health collaborations and exchanging medical personnel such as doctors, the ministry said.

Seoul's top-notch Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital and the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare agreed to help train doctors at the newly opened heart center of St. Paul's Hospital here, ministry officials said.

The ministry also said the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and its Ethiopian counterpart, the Pharmaceutical Fund and Supply Agency, agreed to strengthen partnerships in ways such as co-hosting various seminars.

The ministry will also share its knowledge in the social welfare sector with Ethiopia's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

It marks the first time that the Seoul government has inked an MOU in the social welfare sector with an African country, officials said.

Separately, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) said Friday that it will provide lower-interest, long-term loans worth US$227 million under a state-run fund called the economic development cooperation fund (EDCF) to assist the development of Ethiopia.

Seoul's state-run trade bank said it will assist in the Ethiopian government's project to improve roads with $117 million and provide another $100 million to build infrastructure for the agricultural business, officials said.

The EDCF program, launched in 1987, is aimed at helping developing countries through low-interest-rate loans.

Korea Eximbank said it also opened a representative office in Addis Ababa that will act as a regional office for the East African region.

The office is tasked with supporting South Korean companies in trade, offshore investment and financing loans, as well as shoring up investment in an ongoing infrastructure project, officials said.

Separately, South Korea's state-run utility firm Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) inked MOUs with two Ethiopian electric power companies as part of efforts to make inroads into the emerging energy market of the East African region, KEPCO officials said.

Improvement of the African country's electric power infrastructure will be a key area of cooperation, the officials said.

By Yonhap News