As the international reputation of Korea continues to grow, the Korean government continues to play active roles on the world stage. Even though colonization and war pushed the nation to the periphery for the first half of the 20th century, Korea rapidly emerged to distinguish itself as an economically stable democracy. One truly symbolic event that highlights Korea’s emergence in world
affairs was the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Another one of Korea’s benchmark accomplishments is joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1996. Korea’s development path is quite different from those of many other Western countries, and it may serve as a role model for many of today’s developing countries.
In terms of international development cooperation, Korea has been a recipient country for over 40 years. The government received KRW 1,270 million in aid to promote industrialization after the Korean War. The aid was reduced as the economy grew and foreign capital from developed countries was attracted to Korean investments. As a result, Korea was formally removed from the list of recipient countries by the World Bank in 1995 and the list of recipients of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2000.
Korea’s participation in international cooperation and development has been visible since the late 1980s. The Korean government established the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) in 1987 to offer international loans. In 1991, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) was set up to provide grants and volunteers for a wide range of collaborative projects worldwide. Korea also joined the DAC in the OECD in January 2010, strengthening its role as an active donor to global development. Korean Overseas Volunteers (KOV) have been dispatched to many parts of the world. Thus far, Korea’s effort to provide international assistance has focused on the following regions: Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Africa, and Latin America.
The Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the Korean government provides grants or loans for promoting economic development and welfare of developing countries on concessional terms. Korea, as a member of the DAC of the OECD, has provided grants and loans to many developing countries all around the world.
The map shows the cumulative amount of Korea’s grants from 2000 to 2022, normalized by the population of the receiving country. It also shows the number of Korean volunteers with which they are engaged within each country. The tree map shows the fields Korea has supported. This illustrates how Korea is expanding its global assistance across various fields such as education, public administration, and health.
The graph presents the ratio of ODA to Gross National Income (GNI). We can see that the ratio has increased continuously since 1990. An exceptionally high value was observed in 2005 due to the tsunami disaster in South Asia. The ODA per capita shows how much an individual in the donor country pays for ODA. Korea’s ODA per capita was just USD 1 in 1990 but dramatically increased to USD 54 in 2022.
Korea’s ODA may be classified into two categories: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral assistance can be further divided into grants with 100% donation and loans with a grant rate of 25% or more but less than 100%. Multilateral assistance is subdivided into loans, contributions, and concessional loans. The graph shows that Korea has increased assistance in all types of ODA. Bilateral aid, which was USD 12 million in 1990, was about USD 2.19 billion in 2022, and multilateral aid, which was USD 49 million, surged to roughly USD 600 million in the same period. For reference, in 2022, the ratio of grants to loans in the bilateral aid was two to one. All in all, the data show that Korea has expanded its role as an active donor for global development.
Grants by Region
The graph shows the trend of Korea’s bilateral grants to Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America, and Africa. The total amounts of grant monies awarded have increased dramatically since 2010. In the mid-2000s, the aid mostly targeted the Middle East, but the regions receiving the aid have now expanded to include Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
As illustrated in the pie chart, Korea’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) is directed towards social infrastructure and services (education, health, reproductive health, water supply, and sanitation), economic infrastructure and services (transportation, storage, communications, energy, banking, and financial services), and the production sectors (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, mining, construction, trade policies and regulations, and tourism).
The map shows Korea’s bilateral ODA for Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 2022. The darker colors represent the countries that received larger grants from Korea than other DAC member countries. What becomes clear is that Korea provides more contributions to Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Mongolia than do the other Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
member countries. The map also shows that a significant amount of Korean aid goes to Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, and Pakistan.
Since 1998, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has partnered with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to support the modernization of meteorological services in developing countries through various ODA projects. Korea is actively working on projects such as the Cheollian-2A satellite system and a typhoon monitoring platform to address global meteorological issues, particularly in Asia. Notably, KMA has collaborated with the Mongolian Meteorological Agency on dust storm monitoring and has enhanced observation infrastructure around Ulaanbaatar to strengthen disaster prevention.
The map displays Korea’s bilateral ODA to Latin America in 2022. More specifically, it represents the proportion of Korea’s grants out of the total grants from all the DAC members. The countries that are more dependent on assistance from South Korea are represented in darker colors. Those countries include many in Central America (excluding Mexico), as well as the eastern coastal regions of South America. Particularly high proportions of South Korean aid appear in Paraguay, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. The circle symbol shows the size and sector of the grants by recipient. In terms of size, the largest recipients of Korean aid are the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. These grants primarily target social infrastructure and services, but the economic infrastructure and production sectors also receive assistance in several countries.
A good example of the social infrastructure and services sector support is The First Korea-Peru Health Center Construction Project. The total amount of the grant was about USD 2.4 million, which was distributed from 1992 to 2010. This project has helped to improve public health and medical services in the region.
Another case is the Santo Domingo Water Supply Expansion Project in Ecuador, which utilized Korea’s advanced water treatment technology and provided USD 44 million to expand new water distribution pipelines in Santo Domingo. The project addressed the city’s chronic water shortage, improving public health and hygiene. Colombia, with potential in shipbuilding, has been benefiting from the Colombian Shipbuilding Industry Revitalization Project since 2021, which shares Korea’s development expertise to support the industry’s growth.
The map shows Korea’s bilateral foreign aid for African countries in 2022. The dark colors represent those countries where Korean grants occupy larger proportions among the total DAC grants. Contrary to the clustered geographical pattern of the aid distribution in Latin America, Korea’s grants are relatively evenly distributed to most African countries. The circle symbols of Korean aid represent countries, U.S. dollar amounts, and sectors that received Korean aid. The largest grant recipients in Africa are Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Ghana. Also, the amounts given to those countries have increased gradually (see the graph). Korea is actively working to expand the social infrastructure of beneficiary countries and supports the economic and production infrastructure of nations devastated by civil wars or famines. An example of the projects in the social infrastructure and services sector is found in Ethiopia. Korea has supplied USD 2.8 million to help prevent tuberculosis,
particularly in the city of Addis Ababa. Korea has also helped Rwanda with a variety of education and training programs. An example of these efforts is constructing the ICT innovation center in the Kigali Special Economic Zone.
Korea has invested USD 244 million since 2018 to supply 256 electric train cars to Cairo, Egypt, as part of efforts to improve the city’s transportation infrastructure. This initiative includes the refurbishment of aging metro and railway systems, the expansion of new facilities, and the enhancement of technical personnel capacity. Another example is the Ethiopia Southern National Power Grid Expansion Project, which involves constructing transmission lines and substations in the Omo Kuraz and Arba Minch areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR). This project aims to provide a stable power supply in regions with low electricity access or where reliable power is needed, promoting balanced regional development through expanded electricity access.