열린장관실

Speech by H.E. Kim Sung-Hwan
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea
at Welcoming Dinner at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness
30 November 2011
Busan, Republic of Korea

Excellencies, Heads of delegations, Representatives from civil society organizations, Distinguished Guests,

It is a great pleasure to host this dinner tonight. I would once again like to extend a heartfelt welcome to all of you.  We do indeed deeply appreciate your valuable and constructive engagement in the discussions today.

As we all know, the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness holds great significance in the global context. This Forum aims to present a new vision and framework for the international development community since this is the prime opportunity for all development actors to get together and to discuss the future framework for development cooperation beyond aid effectiveness before 2015, the target year for the MDGs.

To make development happen in the real world, there is a need to reaffirm and further strengthen our commitments on aid effectiveness.  And at the same time we should pave a path from effective aid to development. This is the task we face at this Forum.

In this regard, I am indeed delighted that the Republic of Korea is hosting this meaningful and eminent meeting in the global community. In fact this Forum holds particular meaning for Korea, which is just a beginner in the area of development cooperation.

To the Korean government, still in the learning process in the field of development cooperation, this Forum represents another valuable learning opportunity and experience and I greatly welcome this.

Korea has provided aid since the end of the 1980s, but it was last year that Korea became a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. Furthermore, Korea’s contribution is still modest and needs to be improved compared with those of traditional donor countries

To enhance Korea’s contribution in the world, the Korean government plans to double the aid volume by 2015, representing a figure of approximately 3 billion USD. Furthermore, it is pursuing more effective and partner-oriented aid programs through its strategic plan adopted last year with a special emphasis on MDGs and the self-sustained growth of partner countries.

I believe that we have gained a great deal from sharing our experience and lessons learned in this Forum. For beginners such as Korea, this Forum serves to generate further momentum to improve its aid quality. For partner countries, this is a good opportunity to reflect their needs and concerns in the development cooperation framework. Moreover, this gives fresh impetus to the traditional donors’ quest for innovation. This Forum also provides a framework to bring emerging actors in.

I am convinced that this mutually-learning process will be of great value in enabling us to establish a new global partnership for effective development cooperation tomorrow.

I would like to bring my remarks to a close by proposing a toast to the success of the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, as well as to the health and happiness of all of us here tonight.