South Korea's hosting of the annual governors meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank is expected to fuel a Latin America boom in the country that will lead to greater economic cooperation with the region, the government said Wednesday.

The finance ministry said the annual board of governors meeting to be held in Busan, 453 kilometers southeast of Seoul, over the weekend will be preceded by knowledge business forums, as well as one-on-one talks between companies.

The meeting will be the largest Latin America-related event to take place in the country with some 3,000 to be present for the talks, the ministry said.

With a very young population, growing middle class, plenty of natural resources and abundant agricultural wealth, the region has good growth potential, it said.  Roughly half of the population in Latin America is under 30. The region has 44 percent of the world's known lithium and 42 percent of copper deposits.

"Bilateral trade has doubled in the last decade to $54.2 billion as of last year, with South Korean investment going to the region on the rise, which is in contrast to numbers falling for other areas," said Choi Hee-nam, deputy minister of international affairs.

Seoul has said it is pushing to reach free trade agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

During the business forum, companies from South Korea and Latin American countries are expected to touch on trade and investment, transportation and infrastructure, information technology, energy, finances and procurement, as well as expanding tie-ups between small and medium-sized enterprises.

South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan is tapped to be elected as the chair for next year, with member countries to pass measures to create a New Corporation that will merge existing private institutions under the IDB.

This reorganization and the "mid-term strategy" that is expected to be forged at the Busan meeting should help the development bank better meet its main poverty reduction goal in a more efficient manner, the ministry said.

South Korea joined the IDB in 2005.

During the event, representatives are expected to visit South Korean car assembly plants and shipyards around Busan. (Yonhap)