Yonhap reported that South Korea will intensify cooperation with Latin American countries in securing energy, natural resources and other key commodities vital for economic growth.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, cooperation, which currently focuses on energy and commodity fields, will also be expanded to such areas as commerce, forest resources and other key development projects.

In order to secure natural resources and energy, the government will push for tie ups with Peru, Chile and Brazil.

Seoul will also reach out to Chile and Argentina to cooperate in developing natural resources in order to secure stable supply lines for such materials as copper and uranium.

Food security will also be a major area where South Korea will work together with those Latin American countries. To that end, the ministry said it plans to provide support for local agricultural firms to advance into the area so that they can secure production bases for grains and other farm produce.

Such measures come as Latin American countries have been cruising faster than other advanced nations in terms of economic growth on the back of their sufficient amount of natural resources, providing other nations, including South Korea, with many new business opportunities.

Those nations are getting more attention, especially after South Korea was recently chosen as the venue for an annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in 2015. The government expects the meeting will provide the country with a chance to deepen its economic cooperation with the fast growing resource rich region.

(Sourced from www.yonhapnews.co.kr)