PROGRESS IN RESOURCE DIPLOMACY

    South Korea, which is the world's 10th largest energy consumer, relies on foreign suppliers for 97 percent of its demand. Lee Myung-bak's administration has set energy diplomacy as a key strategy to secure a stable supply of natural resources and revive the economy.

    Russia, Central Asia, Africa and Latin-America were set as strategic regions for South Korea's energy and resource diplomacy in an effort to diversify South Korea's overseas resource development.

    In late March, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo led a 30-member delegation composed of government officials and entrepreneurs to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan for closer energy and resource cooperation with Central Asian nations. The South Korean government and entrepreneurs pledged economic assistance and cooperation in Central Asia's infrastructure construction and high-tech industries in exchange for participation into energy and resource industries there.

    Energy and resource cooperation also topped agenda of President Lee Myung-bak's overseas visits to Russia in September and South American nations in November.

    According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, South Korea has newly acquired 16 oil and natural gas fields, 28 mineral projects in foreign countries in 2008. The country's daily overseas oil production rose by 47,000 barrels in 2008, helping lift the nation's oil self-supply ratio to 5.7 percent.

    Statistics from the government show that the country's investment to overseas resource development reached 3.44 billion U.S. dollars in the first half, exceeding the investment for the whole 2007 of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars.