President Park Geun-hye will seek to expand South Korean companies’ overseas business opportunities during her 12-day trip covering three African states and France slated for later this month, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday.

During the first part of the trip, which includes Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, the president will focus on promoting the South Korean government’s official development assistance program.

Park is scheduled to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn during her visit to Addis Ababa from May 25-28, before moving on to separate talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. She will then travel to France on June 1 for a four-day stay.

Her visit to Uganda is to be the first one by a South Korean president. Her predecessors Chun Doo-hwan and Lee Myung-bak had visited Kenya and Ethiopia during their terms.

In Ethiopia, Park will also deliver a speech at the African Union headquarters, where she will meet with the union’s chairperson and South African anti-apartheid activist Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The African Union is the most influential intergovernmental organization in the African continent, based in Addis Ababa and comprising of 54 African states except Morocco.

In all three African states, the president will attend the initiation ceremony for Korea Aid, the nation’s new official development assistance program to provide health care, food and cultural contents to local communities.

The president’s rare trip to the African countries will lay the foundation for South Korean companies’ overseas expansion, and also secure international cooperation on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear issues, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

Despite the rising importance of the continent as a market, South Korea’s exports to the region only accounted for 1.4 percent of its total exports as of last year, government data showed.

After the African tour, Park will go to France to meet with her counterpart Francois Hollande, marking the 130th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties. The two state leaders are set to discuss economic and cultural agendas, as well as measures regarding North Korea’s nuclear armament.

Park’s most recent visit to the European country was for the United Nations climate change summit in Paris last December.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)