SEOUL– South Korea plans to increase its financial aid to developing countries by 12.4 percent next year, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Thursday.
The government set a budget for official development assistance (ODA) at 4.5 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) in 2023, a hike of 502 billion won from this year, Han told a meeting on overseas aid.
To improve aid effectiveness, Han said the government will expand the role of civilian sectors in ODA projects.
Also, the government will ease regulations to help private firms make inroads into procurement markets for the ODA, Han said.
The government “will help private companies make a foray into domestic and foreign ODA procurement markets by improving unreasonable regulations in the field of the ODA,” Han said.
South Korea ranked 15th among the 29 member states of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Han said the government aims to become one of top 10 donors among the OECD members under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
Source: Yonhap News Agency