Several dozen South Korean companies have signed deals worth more than $41 million with African partners, mostly Kenyan firms, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.

The deals were reached in a meeting between executives of 41 South Korean companies and more than 140 Kenyan firms and other firms from other African countries, including Nigeria and Mozambique in Nairobi on Tuesday.


The business meetings were arranged on the occasion of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s African tour. The South Korean business executives have come along on Park's trip to explore new business opportunities in Africa.

South Korea said $41.6 million accounts for about 17 percent of its exports to Kenya last year.

Kenya is the third leg of her trip that also took her to Ethiopia and Uganda. Park is set to leave for France for a state visit on Wednesday.

Separately, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said that she hopes South Koreans can use Kenyan products such as coffee and teas, noting that she uses a Korean mobile phone, Korean television as well as electricity generated from a geothermal power plant built by a South Korean firm.

She made the comment in a business forum at a hotel that drew Park, her Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, and about 300 South Korean and Kenyan business leaders. (Yonhap)