By Kang Hyun-kyung

Cabinet ministers of 11 Central and South American nations will arrive in Seoul this week for a two-day investment and trade forum to be held from Wednesday.

The business gathering featuring high-profile participants is taking place several months after Seoul unveiled a plan to bolster ties with emerging nations and beef up energy diplomacy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), in collaboration with the Ministries of Land and Transport, Environment and Knowledge Economy, launched the high-level forum in 2008 to assist South Korean businesses pinpoint business opportunities in Central and South America.

During the two-day forum, the vice president and Cabinet ministers of 11 governments in the region will present their major development projects to seek South Korean investment.

The 11 nations are Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua.

High-profile participants include: Alfio Piva, first vice president of Costa Rica; Carlos Rodado, minister of mines and energy of Colombia; and Matias Mori, executive vice president of the foreign investment committee of Chile.

"Aside from the official sessions, many bilateral business meetings are to take place on the sidelines. Deals will be made through those individual meetings," a MOFAT official said, asking not to be named.

He said the investment forum has been a positive venue in the past to connect local businesspeople to potential business opportunities in the American continents. Through the forum several contracts were signed between South Korean businesses and Central and Latin American governments.

The official declined to give specific details of the deals that had been made previously.

Over the past years, Central and South America have emerged as South Korea's major trade and investment partners.

South Korea's trade surplus with the nations in the regions jumped to $21,5 billion in 2010 from $7.9 billion in 2005. Its trade surplus with Central and South American nations doubles that with the United States.

Before this, several challenges, such as cultural differences, a lack of awareness building of the region, language barrier, and a poor pool of experts, made it difficult for South Korean businesses to take advantage of investment opportunities in the region.

Most of nations in the regions are rich with natural resources. Crude oil in the Central and South American continent accounts for 15 percent of the combined global stock, iron 13.6 percent and lithium 78 percent.

In recent years, the continents have caught the attention of South Korean investors as the nations gradually achieved stable economic growth. Those nations also aim to woo Asia as they diversify their markets.

Earlier, MOFAT announced plans to bolster bilateral ties with emerging nations, including those in the Central and South American region.

President Lee Myung-bak called on diplomats based in foreign missions to pursue energetic business diplomacy to better promote commercial opportunities in their respective regions to local players.