With the efforts to secure the hosting of the 2030 Busan World Expo nearing its conclusion, Official Development Assistance (ODA) support for developing countries has emerged as a key focus to secure the favor of these countries. This is seen as an intention to solidify the favor of developing countries, which make up about two-thirds of the member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).
During his appearance on KBS’s News 9 on Oct. 17, Minister Bang Moon-kyu of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, “Among the 182 member countries of the BIE as of this month, which decides the host of the 2030 World Expo, there are more developing countries than advanced nations. That’s why we are actively promoting various development cooperation programs with different developing countries in the final stretch as part of our efforts to win the hosting rights.”
He further explained, “This includes not only ODA, whether it’s grant aid or concessional loans, but also various approaches involving private enterprises collaborating to support the economic development of the countries.”
During his official visit to Paris, France, where the Busan Expo official symposium was held earlier this month, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo met with domestic journalists and stated, “The Busan Expo will not simply be an event but will be a time of collaboration and solidarity over the next 30 years, where countries work together to address international issues,” and added, “To share how to overcome the difficulties of these countries and collaborate, we will increase the ODA budget to double the 2019 level by 2030.”
The government’s policy in this regard is seen as an intention to strengthen support for Busan as the host city by providing substantial incentives, especially to developing countries, as ODA has historically been a crucial factor in winning the bid to host past World Expos.
In fact, ODA is the most frequently mentioned aspect in the context of Japan’s successful bid for the 2025 Osaka-Kansai World Expo. According to BIE, in the late 2010s, the Japanese government engaged in a bidding campaign that promised support to over 100 developing countries, providing expo participation aid of approximately 190 million euros and pledging to send experts to assist developing countries in developing expo content.
The South Korean government has significantly increased its ODA budget as well. In the “2024 Budget Proposal,” if we look at the projects under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the total ODA budget for South Korea in the coming year has been allocated at 6.5 trillion won (US$4.8 billion), which is an increase of 2 trillion won compared to this year’s budget, making it the largest ODA budget in history.