South Korean and Brazilian business leaders met to discuss expanding cooperation in key sectors including advanced manufacturing, strategic minerals and artificial intelligence, as well as agrifood and health and lifestyle industries, and delivered their proposals to Brazil’s president during his state visit to South Korea.
The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said it co-hosted the Korea-Brazil Business Forum with Brazil’s trade and investment promotion agency, ApexBrasil, on Feb. 23 at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul’s Sogong-dong district.
Attendees included Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jeong-gwan, along with about 400 government officials and businesspeople from both countries, FKI said.
Lula’s delegation included about 300 executives from major Brazilian companies, including ApexBrasil Chairman Jorge Viana, Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto and Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard. The group was more than twice the size of the delegation that accompanied Lula during a 2021 state visit, according to the organizers.
Discussions focused on three areas: K-content and related creative industries, food, and advanced manufacturing and strategic minerals.
In the health, lifestyle and creative industries session, participants discussed cultural-content cooperation centered on K-content, which organizers said is spreading across South America, and explored potential links between Brazil’s cosmetics ingredients and South Korea’s K-beauty industry.
In agrifood, the forum examined cooperation models pairing Brazil, described as a stable supplier of agricultural and livestock products, with South Korean companies that have processing, distribution and branding capabilities. In advanced manufacturing, strategic minerals and AI, participants discussed combining Brazil’s capabilities with South Korea’s manufacturing strength to expand cooperation from traditional manufacturing into advanced industries.
FKI and ApexBrasil signed six memorandums of understanding to continue expanding industrial and investment cooperation, FKI said.
In a keynote address, Lula urged closer cooperation between the two countries’ business communities and expressed expectations for broader economic ties. After the forum, Viana shared the results with Lula and said, “This forum will serve as a turning point that leads to tangible outcomes in economic cooperation between the two countries.”
Kim, representing the South Korean government, said Brazil is South Korea’s largest economic cooperation partner in South America and that the two countries have significant potential in strategic industries including aviation, automobiles, shipbuilding, batteries and critical minerals. He added that, as uncertainty in the trade environment grows, resuming negotiations on a Korea-Mercosur trade agreement would help expand trade and investment and create a more stable trade environment.
FKI Chairman Ryu Jin said Brazil is a resource-rich country with competitiveness in food, energy and aviation and holds strategic importance in global supply chains. He called for moving beyond trade-centered ties toward an era of shared prosperity driven by investment and industrial cooperation.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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