The Dominican Republic’s ambassador has thanked Korea for helping her country’s development, while celebrating the Caribbean nation’s independence day.

The Embassy of the Dominican Republic celebrated the 168th anniversary of independence along with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with South Korea last week in Seoul.

Ambassador Grecia Fiordalicia Pichardo Polanco listed her president’s visit to Korea in 2006, and knowledge sharing initiatives as key events since ties were formed on June 6, 1962.

She told guests at the event attended by Foreign Ministry director general for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jang Keung-Ho, that knowledge-sharing with the Korea Development Institute had helped exports in the Dominican Republic by following the Korean paradigm.

“(The program) is the first of its kind in our continent and is considered a benchmark due to its impeccable implementation,” she said.

The country located on the island of Hispaniola exported $148 million in goods to South Korea and imported $55.31 million worth of products form here in 2010.

Another successful program was the Customs Modernization Project achieved with Korean technology, along with e-learning, public administration, telecommunications, power generation, food research and biotechnology being among the many other areas of cooperation.

“In looking at the current state of bilateral relations between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Korea, we can conclude that it is on firm foundation,” the ambassador said. “However, there are certainly prospects to further strengthen and expand our relations.”

She said the areas of human resources and capacity building were areas where she would like further collaboration in the future.