Although Ivory Coast was the first African nation to open diplomatic ties with South Korea ― formally on July 23, 1961 ― the presidents of the two nations will meet face-to-face for the first time ever at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara will meet President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday to discuss ways to expand bilateral cooperation on trade and investment, building infrastructure and development assistance, the country’s top diplomat in residence said in an interview with The Korea Herald. 

“The time is right to come here, because the many years of internal challenges and political crises have passed. Now, the country has come back. So, this is the time to show our friends that we are back on track,” said Ivorian Ambassador to South Korea Sylvestre Bile.

After a brief civil war in 2011, precipitated by an election that ousted Ivory Coast’s former head of state, Ouattara rallied a nation previously divided for years between rebel north and government-controlled south.

Ivory Coast is emerging as a prime investment destination in French-speaking West Africa. For the past three years, the country has led the subregion in terms of growth with near double-digit figures. The country is the world’s single largest cocoa producer. West African nations collectively supply some two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.

South Korea is leading plans to build three 350-megawatt electric power stations, which are expected to go online before the end of 2016, as well as a light rail project in Abidjan, the first public rail system for the city’s 5 million-plus residents.

Heavy investment in electricity generation could boost output from 1,500 MW to as much as 4,000 MW by 2020. Ivory Coast, already a power exporter, could become a regional energy hub by the end of the decade.

International donors supported Ouattara’s three-year reconstruction plan at a conference in Paris in December 2012. They pledged $8.6 billion, twice as much as requested, to create jobs and rebuild infrastructure.

The West African nation organized an investment conference in February, with South Korean business and government officials participating, in Abidjan, the largest city and the country’s cultural and economic center.

During the president’s four-day state visit here, he and Park will sign a slew of agreements strengthening bilateral ties.

In a signing ceremony on Tuesday, the two sides will ink agreements on development assistance; reciprocal promotion and protection of investments; the abolition of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic passports, and two MOUs on joint projects between government ministries.

Bilateral trade between the two nations was about $100 million in 2011, based mainly on South Korean exports of automobiles and plastics.

Ouattara, a former veteran International Monetary Fund official, now heads a $40 billion economy eager to pursue a dramatic revival.

He obtained a Ph.D. in economics from University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. in the late 1960s and then rose up the ranks at the IMF in the 1970s and 80s.

From 1984 to 1988, he was director of the IMF’s African Department, and in 1987 he was also a counselor-level official under the managing director at the IMF.

It was in the 1980s as an IMF economist that Ouattara visited South Korea for the first time, Ambassador Bile said.

Ouattara’s training as an economist may have played a part in the country’s growth of over 9 percent in the past two years. The World Bank projects a GDP of 8 to 9 percent in 2014 and 2015.

His trip here has as much to do with his personal affinity with Korean senior officials as it does about economics.

“We want to thank Korea for helping to assist us through this crisis situation. So many Korean friends helped us, such as (Secretary-General) Ban Ki-moon and (Ambassador) Choi Young-jin, who was appointed by Mr. Ban, and (World Bank President) Jim Yong Kim. So, this visit is also motivated by our gratitude,” Bile said.

The World Bank for the first time opened a South Korean branch office in Songdo, Incheon, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim came to Seoul for the branch office’s inauguration ceremony in December.

But two South Koreans in particular have been credited by senior Ivorian politicians with helping to secure Ivory Coast’s democracy in 2011 and making its economic recovery possible: Ban Ki-moon and Choi Young-jin.

Ban handed Choi a mandate as special representative of the secretary-general to Ivory Coast to certify the 2010 election and make sure the democratically elected president took office.

Choi Young-jin led the U.N. operation there to bolster democratic elections that voted Laurent Gbagbo out of office in late 2010.

Choi’s certification was a first for the U.N. and the operation he led was considered pivotal in supporting then-President-elect Alassane Ouattara during the ensuing post-election crisis that lasted for months from late 2010 to early 2011.

Choi led the U.N. operation to take military operations using armored helicopter gunships to prevent embattled Gbagbo forces from continuing to harm civilian populations. Gbagbo forces even laid siege to the U.N. operation’s headquarters in Abidjan.

Air strikes carried out by the U.N. with the aim of protecting the civilian populations were the first in the history of U.N. peacekeeping. Those air strikes brought the Ivorian post-election crisis to a decisive conclusion and bolstered the democratically elected Ouattara.

Despite his packed itinerary, Ouattara is making a special point to meet with Ambassador Choi during his visit, sources with knowledge of the president’s visit said.

Ouattara visited Japan last year for the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development held from June 1-3. Abe then visited the West African nation in January.

The Ivorian prime minister visited South Korea in 1996, and Korea’s foreign minister reciprocated the visit in 1998. In April 2013, Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, the president of Ivory Coast’s National Assembly, came to Seoul on an unofficial visit.

Park Geun-hye has yet to visit any country in Africa, in contrast to previous presidents Lee Myung-bak and Roh Moo-hyun who made so-called “resource diplomacy” in Africa a priority.

But the Ivorian ambassador was optimistic that this presidential meeting could attract Park to Africa as early as January.

He suggested Park could address next year’s annual African Union summit. Under the theme “The Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063,” the AU will convene its 24th session at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 30-31.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2014@heraldcorp.com)