The South Korean ambassador in Spain, Park Hee Kwon, yesterday visited Algeciras in order to "explore the possibility of increasing investment and the level of trade, as well as promote tourism among Koreans and establish academic links between universities' Korean and Spanish.
The ambassador explained it well after being received at City Hall of Algeciras by its mayor, José Ignacio Landaluce, explaining that the purpose of his visit is to "increase investment in Korea in the area of Algeciras', which he considers "a strategic place", especially in the port sector.
In this section he highlighted the positive announcement by the European Union to help with 22 million Euros to the company to continue growing in their semiautomatic container terminal.
However, for Hee Kwon there are more fields to explore, such as "typical Andalusian food products, which are widely accepted in Korea." Therefore, aims to influence in that section as well as in others like “cultural, tourist or college.”
The Asian diplomat remembered that his country "has signed all the free trade agreements» both within the EU and the United States, therefore considers that “we are able to have good trade relations, especially in an area like Gibraltar, Campo de Gibraltar and Algeciras, which are strategic points with great potential.”
The Algeciras mayor, meanwhile, appreciated the visit of Ambassador “for what it means for the strengthening of ties that bind the two countries on not only economic matters, but also cultural sections and university training."
Subsequently, Landaluce and Hee Kwon visited the TTI Algeciras where the diplomat received from his manager, Alonso Luque, a project to convert the port of Algeciras in "the South Korean port in Spain and West Africa."
Meetings in the Chamber
After visiting the tower of the Maritime Authority, from which showed the South Korean ambassador port operation, he addressed the Chamber of Commerce of the Campo de Gibraltar, where he held an organizational meeting at political level in which the delegate of the State in Free Zone of Cádiz, Jorge Ramos, explained to Hee Kwon the special tax status of this institution, its advantages for employers, the number of companies established, that are more than 500, and the more than 7,000 direct jobs generated. Then, Ignacio Álvarez Osorio, head of the Andalusian Network Logistics, addressed to the ambassador international university agreements and expressed his desire, next to Algeciras mayor, of exchange agreements with Korean universities.
Finally, they held a meeting with businessmen in the region in the auditorium of the Chamber of Commerce in which the Asian diplomat presented the main lines of investment of his country in Spain and pledged to work with Korean companies to promote Algeciras as the objective of their investments.
Hee Kwon said that he had seen the commitment of public representatives to facilitate the implementation and expansion of new business lines and that this provision should be used by investors in their country.
Landaluce thanked Hee Kwon his visit to Algeciras and his interest in projecting the potential of the city to the Korean companies. Hee Kwon welcomed the invitation and said that there were many elements that bound him to Spain and always, in his previous diplomatic missions, he had worried especially business promotion and the connection between local companies and their country.
