South Korea will lower its overseas development assistance to gross national income ratio to 0.2 percent in the next five years following an economic slowdown that may adversely affect the East Asian nation’s rise as a formidable emerging donor in the region.
The country’s economic growth in the third quarter of the year decreased 0.7 percentage points to 1.6 percent, compared with the 2.3 percent recorded the previous quarter. Economic growth has propelled the country from aid recipient to aid donor in just one generation, in the process becoming one of global development’s major success stories.
Seoul announced Nov. 10 that Park Geun-hye’s administration is decreasing its ODA to GNI ratio projection to a more “doable target” from the original 0.25 percent target originally set to be achieved this year. In real terms, however, the country’s development portfolio has continuously increased, albeit at a slower rate than previous years. In 2014, ODA grew at 11 percent.