By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter

Ecuador's vice foreign minister has made a fine first step for close ties with Korea as his government sees it as an important future partner for the century to come.

``Every year, vice ministers of foreign affairs will visit each other. Evaluations on bilateral relations and a mutual agenda for future activities will be discussed,'' said Jose Valencia, vice minister of external relations, during his visit to Seoul last week. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on establishing consultation at the vice ministerial level was signed.

The signing is a great move for Ecuador and especially its President who now sees Asia as the ``West'' where enormous unexplored opportunities are expected to come from.

``The President said looking at the West is the future of our economy. For Ecuador, the 21st century is one for the Pacific. We are working to see if it's possible to increase relations with Korea and Asia,'' Valencia said in an interview with The Korea Times at the residence of Ecuadorian Ambassador Jose E. Nunez, Monday.

Based on the MOU, Ecuador hopes to develop the relationship into more substantial one with increasing economic ties, especially a free trade agreement, he said. ``We evaluated and analyzed the experiences of the Korea-Chile FTA,'' that has been in force for four years now.

Witnessing 300-percent growth in trade between Chile and Korea, Valencia feels more optimistic and promising in its pursuit of the FTA with Korea, although he knows Ecuador wouldn't have as much comparative advantage as Chile as a country in the southern hemisphere could have.

The tropical country exports bananas, shrimp, rice and other agriculture products, but currently none of these have a niche in the Korean market as Chile does.

However, Ecuador has important opportunities for mining in copper and gold, a great potential to be explored by Korea, Valencia said. Indeed, Ecuador is abundant in oil, the third largest oil exporter in Latin America. Most oil is consumed in Europe and the United States, he said. Korea used to import Ecuadorian crude oil, but stopped because of what experts said was the quality of the oil.

The vice minister said Korea is one of the new countries that Ecuador endeavors to expand oil exports to.

Ecuador shares borders with Peru to the east and south, Colombia to the north and by the Pacific Ocean to the west.

With a land area slightly bigger than South Korea, but petroleum and natural resources have not contributed much to the economy. Beginning with the financial crisis in 1999, the country has been struggling with a deteriorating economy. In 2000, President Jami Mahaud announced it would adopt the U.S. dollar as its official currency to recover from the crisis, a decision that faced opposition. It resulted in intervention by the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. dollar still remains the official currency.

With Korea, it opened diplomatic relationship in 1962 with embassies in both countries. Korea has a big surplus in trade, exporting electronic appliances and automobiles worth $4.3 billion and importing only $23 million worth of agricultural products, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. But an embassy official said actual trade is even smaller.

The majority of the population remains below the poverty line, and are pushed to migrate for jobs.

The wave of globalization and consequent free trade entices impoverished countries to aspire to expand their markets throughout the world. Yet, two-faced globalization, as the vice minister described, is haunting the local economy in Ecuador, pushing people to migrate to other countries to get jobs.

A phenomenon in Ecuador along with other impoverished Latin American countries that could possibly be compared with geese family in Korea, separates families from fathers and husbands as they leave their family for jobs. They enter illegally to developed European countries or the United States where they can find jobs.

``This is caused by globalization,'' which extinguished jobs in Ecuador, Valencia said.

The separation of families had become a seed for many other unanticipated social problems, he said. For example, the long absence of a father and husband leads to the collapse of families and leaves children more vulnerable to insecurity.

The protection of foreign-residing citizens and their rights has also surfaced as a big challenge. They are mostly undocumented and engaged in labor-intensive work. Indeed, their presence in foreign countries has come under sharp criticism from the citizens of host countries for robbing them of job opportunities that would be originally entitled to.

Actually, not too long ago, criticisms led to an announcement by the EU that it would tighten its immigration laws.

But those jobs aren't wanted by local people,' Valencia said, citing a study that showed immigrant labor actually contributed to the host countries' economy rather than backsliding.

Not only that, cash inflow from abroad is noticeable in efforts to develop economic capacity. So, it's mixed results and mixed feelings, he said.

Fun Facts About Ecuador

Ecuador is the largest banana exporting country in the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Ecuadorian banana exports alone account for more than 30 percent of exports worldwide.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr