KOICA MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT AND EXPANDS ASSISTANCE TO CAMBODIA

KOICA Marks 20^th Anniversary Of its establishment and expands assistance to Cambodia

PRESS RELEASE (From KOICA Cambodia Office)

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) was founded as a Korean government agency on April 1^st, 1991, performing important roles in providing Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries. It is meaningful that KOICA has now turned to 20 years of age to conclude the youth period and to start a new era as a grown-up. Widely recognized as an emerging donor with the increasing development assistance efforts and practices of KOICA worldwide, Korea has been accepted as a formal member of the OECD/DAC (Development Assistance Committee) on November 25^th, 2009. The know-how and experience Korea gained from the past decades are invaluable assets that allow KOICA to efficiently support the sustainable socio-economic development of its partner countries and to offer them hope for a better world. Taking advantage of Korea’s experience of rapid development in helping other developing countries, which we call the Korean Aid Model, KOICA will accelerate the development cooperation with partner countries.

In 1991, KOICA started cooperation program by providing office equipment to Cambodia. Having seen a rapidly increased development cooperation promoted between the two countries, KOICA set up an overseas office in Phnom Penh in 2003. Since then, it has played a leading role in bridging the people of the two countries with ODA program. KOICA has carried out 28 Project aid programs and invited 1,650 Cambodian officials to Korea as a part of human resource development program. For the volunteer program, KOICA has dispatched up to 240 Korean volunteers to Cambodia to work voluntarily for local institutions of the Cambodian Government.

Regarding KOICA’s achievements in Cambodia, the amount of Grant Aid volume to Cambodia has been sharply increased from 6.3 million US dollars in 2006 to 14.8 million US dollars in 2010. In 2011, KOICA plans to provide 15 million US dollars to Cambodia through various cooperation programs such as development projects, invitation of trainees, dispatch of volunteers, etc. For the current and future technical cooperation, KOICA will continuously support Cambodia to achieve its national development goals, by integrating its strategy with Cambodia’s National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), and the government’s Rectangle Strategy. KOICA focuses on the development of 4 priority sectors—agriculture & rural development, health, education, and infrastructure.

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