Korea

Background

The Republic of Korea became a State Participant of the African Development Fund on February 27, 1980, and was admitted into the African Development Bank (AfDB) on December 30, 1982. Korea’s collaboration with the AfDB is articulated around 3 main pillars: ADF replenishment, bilateral trust funds, and co-financing arrangement in addition to the provision of resources for the implementation of HIPC Initiative and Multilateral Debt Reduction Initiative (MDRI).

Joint initiatives

The first KOAFEC Ministerial Conference was held in Seoul in April 2006 and has since become the permanent framework for Korea-Africa economic cooperation (KOAFEC). Under the KOAFEC Initiative, the Government of Korea and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, in collaboration with the AfDB, have formulated the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 KOAFEC Action Plans and organized several events (the first and second KOAFEC Ministerial Conference in Seoul in 2006 and 2008; the On-the-spot KOAFEC Workshops in Tunisia and in South Africa in 2007, in Tanzania and in Ghana in 2008 for a total of 47 African countries)
The Korea Agency for Digital Opportunities (KADO), in collaboration with the AfDB, organized several trainings and workshops in 2008 (Training on IT Security, on Mobile Telecommunications and on E-Procurement).
The International Contractors Association of Korea (ICAK) has co-sponsored an AfDB Business Opportunities Seminar in Seoul.
The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) offered five training fellowships to the AfDB Group in 1997.
To date, five Korean experts have been seconded to the Private Sector Department and the Development Research Department of the AfDB by the Ministry of Strategy & Finance of Korea (2 experts), the Korean Eximbank (2 experts) and the Bank of Korea (1 expert).

Formal agreements and financial contributions

Two Technical Cooperation Agreements between the Government of Korea and the AfDB were signed in May 1998 and in December 2007 to the tune of US$ 2 million and US$ 5 million respectively. With the framework of this cooperation, Korea has financed 15 projects with a total of US$ 5.38 million. The Government of Korea has decided to provide additional contributions to the KOAFEC Technical Cooperation Fund by US$ 20 million.
Korea’s contribution to the MDRI amounted to UA* 51.58 million, constituting 0.884% of MDRI burden shares.
The Government of Korea has also provided the equivalent of US$ 0.5 million through the HIPC Trust Fund for the financing of the AfDB’s contribution to the HIPC initiative, corresponding to 0.02% of the entire donor support to the African Development Bank Group.
A MOU between the Korea Eximbank and the AfDB was signed in 2005. To date, 15 projects have been identified for co-financing under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). In 2007, Korea approved a total of US$ 14 million to finance the Madagascar Toliara Road Project under the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
AMOU on co-financing were signed on October 28, 2008, between the Ministry of Strategy & Finance of Korea and the AfDB. Under this MOU, the Government of Korea will earmark an amount of US$ 200 million over three years starting in 2009 for the co-financing with the AfDB of sovereign operations through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
A MOU on collaboration in ICT were signed on October 28, 2008, between the Korea Communications Commission and the AfDB.

*Units of Account: UA 1 = US$1.4883