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| ▲ Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks during a meeting of the government committee on official development assistance on June 30, 2023. (Yonhap) |
S Korea-development aid
Next year's ODA budget set at record high of 6.8 tln won
By Kim Han-joo
SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- The government set next year's budget for official development assistance (ODA) at a record high of 6.8 trillion won (US$5.2 billion) on Friday, with a focus on providing humanitarian assistance to countries in emergency situations, such as war-torn Ukraine.
The decision was made during a meeting of the government committee on official development assistance presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. Next year's budget represents a 43.2 percent on-year hike.
The proposal will be reviewed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and will be finalized after passing through the parliament.
"Since the government has significantly increased the size of ODA even while maintaining sound fiscal policies, thorough management should be carried out to ensure taxpayers' money is not wasted," Han was quoted by his office saying.
Of the total, about 1.2 trillion won is earmarked for humanitarian crisis response projects in countries affected by war and disasters, the office said.
About 808.1 billion won will be spent on traffic-related assistance, such as building railroads in Egypt, 453.6 billion won on health care assistance and 452.9 billion won on public administration assistance.
The budget will be divided among 1,978 ODA projects and will be carried out through 47 agencies.
The budget was earmarked in consideration of the so-called Busan Initiative, spearheaded by President Yoon Suk Yeol, which aims to share the country's development experiences with developing countries. The initiative was proposed as part of a high-profile plea for South Korea's right to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan.
South Korea has gradually increased the ODA budget since joining the Development Assistance Committee, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development organization tasked with coordinating aid policy for developing countries, in 2010.
Nonetheless, South Korea still ranked 16th among the 30 member states in terms of the size of its ODA budget last year.
The government expects the ratio of the ODA budget to the country's per-capita gross national income to significantly increase after the execution of next year's budget.
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