Korea head calls for more corporate investment into Africa

The president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has called for more corporate investment into Africa and other poverty-stricken regions of the world, as part of a comprehensive program to encourage the private sector to spur sustained global economic growth.

The most important players in reviving and energizing the economy are the enterprises, Lee told a group of more than 100 CEOs at the G-20 Business Summit in Seoul.

Lee explained that corporate interests must take up this cause since government-led economic recovery and growth are limited in scope.
Civilian participation is also inevitable in achieving balanced economic growth, he said.

Civilian corporate investment, which currently leads the development of emerging markets such as Asia and South America, will have to spread to underdeveloped regions, including Africa.

Such investments, Lee said, will widen the production base of these nations, create more jobs and ultimately help to promote longer-term balance in the global economy.

The development of the poorer nations of the world was an issue South Korea was keen to include in the agenda of items at the Seoul G-20 meeting because closing the wealth gaps between the richer advanced nations and their poorer developing peers is an urgent task president Lee said.