KOICA to support Ghana with $2.6 million
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has initiated action to support Ghana’s development effort with $2.6 million this year.
Advertisement
Under the initiative, the agency intends to support six projects and 17 fellowship programmes in different areas of the national economy.
The Director General of KOICA in charge of Capacity Building, Ms Youn Soo Lee, made this known at the opening session of a week’s training programme for 14 chief directors and officials of ministries and state agencies from Ghana in Seoul yesterday.
The training, dubbed: “The high-level partnership programme for Ghana’s economic development”, is intended for the participants to learn about the Korean development experience and how it can be beneficial to Ghana.
Cooperation
Organised by KOICA, the training programme is also aimed at strengthening the relations between Ghana and Korea.
Cooperation between the two countries has been growing since 1977 when they established diplomatic relations.
KOICA’s support for Ghana between 1991 and 2015, amounted to US$48 million.
Projects
Throwing more light on KOICA’s development assistance to Ghana in 2016, Ms Youn said the projects were in the areas of maternal and child health care, transportation, electricity infrastructure and education.
Other Trending Stories
In the case of the 17 fellowship programmes, she said, KOICA would focus on capacity building, sustainable industry development, domestic violence, urban development and crime protection.
Ms Youn said Korea remained largely dependent on foreign assistance throughout the 1950s and early 1960s but was able to achieve rapid economic growth and turned itself into an aid donor.
Currently, she said, Korea was sharing its development experience with the rest of the world to promote economic and social development in partner countries.
She said in view of Korea’s experiences, the participants could get valuable ideas and insights to address challenges and concerns towards the development of Ghana.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, Mr Suleiman Ahmed, who spoke on behalf of the participants, said Ghana was appreciative of Korea’s contribution to the country’s development and was optimistic that the programme would be beneficial to the participants and national development.
He described the development of Korea as phenomenal and said there was a lot to learn from that country.
He said since the participants were policy implementers, he believed they would be able to share knowledge and experiences in the training programme and work towards their implementation back home.