Minister Bang Moon-gyu Visits Chile as Presidential Special Envoy... Cooperation on Critical Mineral Supply Chains

Economic Delegation Accompanied by 39 Members
Request for CF Alliance Participation and Interest

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu (left in the photo) visited Chile on October 31 (local time) as a special envoy of the President and took a commemorative photo while delivering a letter from President Yoon Suk-yeol to Foreign Minister van Klaveren.

Visit Kyu Bang, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, visited Chile from October 29 to November 1 as a special envoy of the President, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced. The delegation included 39 economic envoys from leading domestic institutions and companies such as KOTRA, Export-Import Bank, Namdong Power, Southern Power, Korea Mine Reclamation Corporation, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company, POSCO Holdings, Lotte Chemical, SK Earthon, HD Hyundai Infracore, Korea Zinc, and Eagon Industry.

Chile is the first country with which Korea signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and is a key partner in future advanced new industries such as lithium and other critical mineral supply chains and green hydrogen.

On October 31, Minister Bang met with Foreign Minister van Klaveren and delivered a letter from President Yoon Suk-yeol. The two countries proposed building a new partnership for future joint prosperity based on over 60 years of accumulated relations.

Minister Bang also held successive meetings with Minister Pardow of the Ministry of Energy, Minister Grau of the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism, and Minister Williams of the Ministry of Mining to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields such as critical minerals, hydrogen, and trade and investment. Additionally, he requested Chile’s active interest and participation in the ‘Carbon-Free (CF) Alliance’ proposed by Korea to the world last September.

On October 30, immediately after the meeting with the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, under the presence of both ministers, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on investment cooperation was signed between KOTRA and InvestChile, Chile’s investment promotion agency, and a financial cooperation MOU was signed between the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper company and the world’s largest copper producer. Accordingly, financial cooperation to support the stable supply of copper, a critical mineral, is expected to be actively pursued.

A Korea-Chile Business Roundtable for comprehensive and strategic cooperation between the industries of both countries was also held on the same day, hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chilean Industrial Association, with the participation of over 60 key business figures from both countries.

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