Development Cooperation

Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Kyung-hwan (right) shakes hands with Bolivian Minister of Development Planning Rene Gonzalo Orellana (left) at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank on March 29.
Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Kyung-hwan (right) shakes hands with Bolivian Minister of Development Planning Rene Gonzalo Orellana (left) at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank on March 29.

 

The Korean government will provide policy financing worth US$1 billion (1.1 trillion won) to Latin America and create a joint financing of US$100 million (110.68 billion won). This is a measure for the country to take a bigger part in development projects in Latin America. 

With the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Busan, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) announced the “Korea-Latin America Development Cooperation Plan” on March 28.

Accordingly, the Korean government is planning to inject policy financing worth US$1 billion (1.1 trillion won) into the Latin American region, including an Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of US$500 million (553.4 billion won) and export financing of US$500 million (553.4 billion won). 

The government also agreed to raise US$100 million (110.68 billion won) for joint financing with the IDB as the EDCF. The EDCF will provide loans to infrastructure development projects in Latin America with a limit of US$100 million (110.68 billion won) by Feb. 2017, along with the IDB.

The MOSF said, “It is that the Korean government will provide low-interest loans to developing countries in the form of matching funds together with the IDB. By expanding the cooperation, large-scale infrastructure projects, which have great burdens of financing, are likely to be propelled.” 

Moreover, the government is planning to expand exchanges with the Latin American region through its Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), which shares the knowledge and experience of the economic development of Korea. The country has already provided policy advisories 130 times to 13 countries, including Columbia, Peru, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic.

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