FACILITATING ENERGY CORPORATION BETWEEN KOREA AND AFRICA: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PERTNERSHIP THESIS 1 JAMES AKIBON = 2011475049

RESEARCH TOPIC

Facilitating Energy Corporation Between Korea and Sub-Sahara Africa; Public and Private Partnerships Introduction
With my research I propose to look at how Korean companies are doing in Energy sector in Africa. My goal is to check the performance of these companies by comparing them with traditional partners like European, other Asian countries like China and Latin American countries like Brazil. Then I would look at why Korean countries has not be doing well compare to those other countries, and at the end make some recommendation on what can be done for vibrant energy corporation between Korean companies and African companies. Why This Topic After many years of economic failures, stagnant growth and bad governance African countries are currently enjoying rapid Economic growth in GDP, middle class is rapidly growing and apart from natural resources banking, telecommunication is at the increase. And investment is flowing in not only from traditional partner but also from other developing countries like Asian and Latin American. Many African in recent years has discovered the need to reform all facet of life in Africa so they have embarked on many processes of economic reforms, environmental reforms and educational reforms and there has been a sea change across much of the continent since 2000, mostly for the better. Of course there can be wide variation from country to country. Nevertheless, the overall trend is unmistakable and has been sustained for about a decade. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is also on a rising trajectory in most sectors, including oil, mining, infrastructure, telecommunications, and agriculture, where opportunities still abound despite the remarkable penetration of Chinese and other emerging-market firms alongside the traditional Western multinationals. With the rise of Asian countries economics, the competitive climate has become a bit more saturated in recent years, so this is a great window of opportunity for any Korean firm that might want to invest in African countries. African is actually increasing and with the new recession in Europe and American many Korean companies is looking into investment in Africa. This new development in Asian economics growth and the European and American economic woes has lead to an increase in trade volume between Africa and Korea reaching it highest picks but Africa remain a marginal part of Korean investment around the world. (S. Kang, 2011) The volume of trade between Africa and Korea has increased rapidly, reaching $13.9 billion in 2009, up from $6.4 billion in 2000. However, in relative terms, Africa remains a marginal trade partner for Korea. Africa accounts for only 3.3% of total Korean exports and 1% of imports. While the share of the continent in Korean exports has steadily increased since 2003, Africas share in Korean imports has declined after rising to about 2% in 2006. Overall, trade flows are in favor of Korea, with a trade surplus of USD 7 billion in 2009. Nevertheless, recent trade trends between Korea and Africa are encouraging, with a rapid increase in exports and imports .So I believe

this kind of research is important because of Korea increasing demand for Oil and Gas, African countries increasing discovery of oil and gas, frequent riot or uprising in middle east and also the Korean increasing roles in global community. Much of the empirical research for this project would be to analyze Korean oil and gas companies like KNOC, KOGAS and many more to look at the data of investment in Africa and roles that the government of Korean are playing in supporting these companies to survive in this continent. J. George and M. Paulo, 2007 said in March 2006, the president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, visited three resource-rich African countries, which according to a South Korean minister had a clear rationale: Closer cooperation with Africas oil producers will help South Korea diversify its petroleum import sources though South Korea appears to be assuming a less aggressive version of a Chinese resource-for-infrastructure model in Africa. KNOC has been in Africa since 2005with its largest presence in Congo-Brazzaville, Libya, and Nigeriaalthough it has yet to pump any oil out of the ground. To take advantage of its position as a public company, KNOC has tried to forge high-profile partnerships with state-owned companies. Although Gabon has delayed the auction of 40 blocks, KNOC wants to win some of this acreage in return for South Korea constructing an airport in Gabon as well as providing hospitals. South Koreas offer to help Libreville hone its exploration skills and geological data collection has enabled it to cut into Chinas position in Gabon. In the DRC, South Korea has signed memorandums promising to build hydropower infrastructure in exchange for minerals. What Other Articles has not done As my research would focus mainly on Korea, I have not found much scholarly information related to this research even though there are some write up from AFDB and some research institutions. Perhaps because Korea oil and gas sector is so marginal and because most of the investment are so recent so many write up has not been done, many articles written about Africas economic relationships with Korea has only depicted the overall Korean companies investment in Africa but has not really based their research on energy sector so my work would look deeply into this and many issues surrounding many problems facing by this companies to penetrate into Africa oil and gas businesses. In recent year in order to penetrate into Africa energy sector the government has extended its relationship beyond trade and investment and involve also knowledge sharing and policy dialogue. In this context, the Korean Government, who hosted the Seoul G20 summit in 2010, has actively reached out to Africa to help increase awareness of Africas development interests. This brief examines the major trends in trade, investment and aid flows between Korea and Africa. It highlights policy implications for African countries in view of the recent developments in this economic relationship (S. Kang, 2011)

Data collection
I will rely on three types and sources of data; the theoretical literature, interviews and archival records. I have already read many publications as preparation for proposal but I havent seen yet a good theoretical literature for my research. Preparing for this proposal has helped me define the research question, the working hypothesis and select the case studies. As I come across further publications, I will continue reading

them and I will be able to place them in a more and more empirically informed context. My initial working hypotheses encompass issues ranging from partnership creation. Therefore, I will need to talk to companies official as well as to experts in a variety of fields. I will prepare a protocol for each interview, which will help to keep the interview focused, but I want to preserve the flexibility to elicit non-expected information as well. Provided the permission of the interviewee, I will record each interview on recorder, and any data collected would be link with literature-collected data.

Conclusion I have read some write up on economics relation between Korea and some African countries but I havent seen any article or literature that has written basically on energy corporation with Korea and Africa so my research work would be based on this premises.

References
Dr. Hae-Jung Jung, Korea and Africa Joining Hands for a New Partnership, Korea African forum, 2009 Gil Seong Kang, The Korea- Africa Partnership: Beyond Trade and Investment, 2006, African Development Bank George and M. Paulo, A New Scrable for African Oil? Historical Political, And Business perspective West African Nations critical to U.S. Energy SecurityGulf of Guinea provides 14 percent of U.S. oil supply US Department of State Home Page <http://usinfo.state.gov/af/Archive/2004/Sep/21-431810.html> (20 March 2006). KOAFEC, Joint Declaration of the Korea - Africa Economic Cooperation, 2010 Personal communication with a senior executive of an international oil company Klare and Volman, The African oil rush and American national security. Jedrzej George Frynas and Geoffrey Wood, Oil and war in Angola, Review of African Political Economy 28 (2001), pp. 587606. Jedrzej George Frynas, The oil boom in Equatorial Guinea, African Affairs 103 (2004), pp. 52746. Gurney, Libya: The political economy of oil. Asuni, Judith Burni (2009): Blood Oil in the Niger Delta (United States Institute of Peace, Special Report), Washington, D.C.: USIP. Bell, Joseph C. and Teresa Maurea Faria (2005): Sao Tome and Principe enacts oil revenue law, sets new transparency, accountability, and governance standards (Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence 3 [1]). BBC (2008): Nigeria seeks to end blood oil, accessed at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/business/7495105.stm; last accessed: June 5, 2011. Ernst & Young, 2010, Africa oil and gas: a continent on the move