African nations came together in Seoul this week to mark Africa Day.

The continent’s 17 nations with diplomatic missions in Korea celebrated with an evening reception on Friday at Samsung D’light in Seocho-gu and a day of cultural events from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday

The annual Africa Day celebrations mark the founding in 1963 of the Organization of African Unity, which is now called the African Union and comprised of 53 member states.

Senegalese Ambassador Amadou Dabo, who is dean of the African diplomatic corps in Seoul, said that Africa was increasingly taking a bigger role in the world’s economy.

“Once a bystander of the global economy, the African continent has turned into a continent of opportunity for investment,” he said. “African economies have the potential to grow into a base for natural resources supply, infrastructure, construction, consumer goods and manufacturing.”

Dabo also praised Korea’s assistance to developing countries on the continent through knowledge-sharing programs and official development assistance.

He also promoted public private partnerships using official government aid and business investment.

“Africa has come of age as the World Bank report on global economic growth prospects published in January 2012 indicates that the growth of developing countries would be 6 percent and sub-Saharan Africa will be the only region of the world to accelerate its growth by 5.2 percent,” he said. “Better still, recent forecasts of the IMF state that the African continent has been one of the least affected by financial turmoil such as the Euro crisis.”

Lee Myung-bak’s trip to African countries in late 2011 had helped to cement relations between Korea and the continent, Dabo said.

Second vice minister at the Korean Foreign Ministry Kim Sung-han praised the country’s progress over the last decade on account of its 5 percent economic growth as well as social progress.

Trade volume between Africa and Korea has almost doubled over the past 5 years from $12 billion in 2006 to more than $20 billion in 2011.

“The African Union successfully played a great role in dealing with the tough challenges facing the continent such as regional peace, security and stability,” Kim said. “Africa is no doubt steadily transforming itself into the most promising continent with remarkable shifts, although there are still various difficulties to get over.”

By Kirsty Taylor  (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)