Interview with Vice President Gabriela Michetti of Argentina
By Ms. Linda Yoon
Editor of the Korean-language newspaper of The Korea Post
Vice President Madam Gabriela Michetti of the Republic Argentina said that the Argentine government puts a very high priority on the Republic of Korea in her foreign relations in various areas, including political and economic spheres as well as foreign relations.
Speaking at a press conference with The Korea Post media (publisher of three English and two Korean-language media) and a number of other media organizations at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on May 10, 2015, Vice President Michetti said that she was visiting Korea to further promote the close ties of cooperation with Korea also in many other areas?such as exchanges between civic organizations of the two countries, including those between Korean and Argentine universities.
“At this time I would like to remind you of the position of our new government in Argentina,” stressed Vice President Michetti, “which puts high priority in the promotion of relations and cooperation in the diplomatic and economic areas.”
Gist of the interview follows:
The Republic of Korea is the first country which is visited by a leader of the Government of Argentina, which bespeaks what important meaning Argentina attaches to the promotion of relations between Argentina and Korea.
There are many areas where the two countries can cooperate for the promotion of mutual interest and benefit which include the issuance of mutually recognized international driver’s license, working holidays, internal security and air transportation means.
Argentina and Korea have many complementary areas in the bilateral trade and therefore have great potential for further vitalized bilateral trade. In spite of these favorable conditions, notwithstanding, however, it is true that the volume of bilateral trade is not very large.
Argentina has abundance of raw materials and fruits such as blue berries, cherries, pears, apples and oranges that are very good for the Korean market but that due to inspection and various entry restrictive procedures that are in the way in exporting them to Korea the bilateral trade has many any big progress.
We have discussed these matters with President Park Gun-hye to find a solution to these matters with special emphasis on the possibility of the high value-added products of Argentina to find their way into Korea.
On Korea’s part, President Park Geun-hye reminded Argentina that there are many strong points that the Korean businesses have that would be useful in their investment and further advances.