Five years after gaining entry into the Overseas Economic Cooperation and Development’s aid donor club, South Korea remains firmly on course to increasing its official development assistance. But it is also set on aligning its aid agency’s operations more closely with its national policy.
In 2013, the Asian donor disbursed $1.74 billion in net ODA, which accounted for just 0.13 percent of its GNI that year. Seoul intends to grow its development assistance to 2.38 trillion Korean won ($2.2 billion) this year, up 10 percent from 2014’s $2 billion in ODA — a modest figure in real terms compared to other aid donors, like the United States and Japan, but one of the biggest in terms of growth rate.
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Lean Alfred Santos@DevexLeanAS
Lean Alfred Santos is a Devex development reporter focusing on the development community in Asia-Pacific, including major players such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Prior to joining Devex, he covered Philippine and international business and economic news, sports and politics. Lean is based in Manila.
