02
Dec
South Korea and the European Union: A promising partnership for development cooperation?
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In 2010, the European Union (EU) and Korea began a new era of engagement by establishing a strategic partnership, which intends to strengthen bilateral dialogue and cooperation in regional and global affairs. The EU-South Korea Framework Agreement specifically commits the two parties to ‘strengthening cooperation in the area of […] development assistance’.1
As a new development donor and recent member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea is reforming and scaling up its development assistance and establishing cooperation initiatives with traditional donors, including some EU member states. In this context, cooperation on international development appears to be a promising issue for the future agenda of the KoreaEU partnership.
Korea’s emergence as a development donor
Korea provides a rare example of a state that has successfully transformed itself from a poverty-stricken country to a flourishing industrialised nation within just a few decades.2
While in 1962 Korea’s per-capita income was around US$80, by 2013 it hadnincreased to more than US$23,000. This experience has contributed to shaping the country’s commitment and approach to development cooperation, including its interest in sharing lessons from its own development progress.
Korea first began to provide international development assistance in the 1980s. In 1987, it established the Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and in 1991, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).3
During the period 1987- 2000, Korea was a ‘Janus’ in international development cooperation, as it increasingly provided funds as a donor, while receiving itself development assistance from Western countries.
Development Assistance Committee membership and related reforms Korea became a DAC member in 2009. An important factor that motivated the Korean government to seek membership was the fact that Korea had received huge amounts of development aid from the international community in the early stages of its economic development. Korea’s political leadership saw this as a means to pay back the international community for its support, while fulfilling its international responsibilities as a newly industrialised country.5
Korea’s more proactive involvement in development cooperation can also be seen as an attempt to increase its profile and strategic position in East Asia, taking advantage of the current leadership vacuum in the region that has been created by growing rivalry between China and Japan.
DAC membership has triggered a number of important reforms in Korea’s development cooperation policy. In line with commitments undertaken during the membership negotiations, the overall development assistance budget has been increased;6 there is now greater emphasis on grants rather than on loans; the ratio of untied loans has been raised relative to tied loans;7 and the policy governance structure has undergone significant reforms.8
Among the measures taken, the adoption of the Framework Act on International Development Cooperation (hereafter Framework Act) in 2010 was particularly noteworthy. This provided the basis for the establishment, also in 2010, of the Committee of International Development Cooperation (CIDC) under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as a control centre for all development-related policies.9
Access and download the full Fride – European Strategic Partnerships Observatory paper here: http://fride.org/download/PB_15_South_Korea_and_the_European_Union.pdf