 Lee Bae-yong |
Korea needs to allocate more resources for poor countries, which will be beneficial in improving its global image, the chief of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding said Tuesday.
Chairwoman Lee Bae-yong said that Korea’s budget for official development assistance (ODA) will be increased to 0.25 percent of gross domestic product by 2015.
She also said that the country will teach poor countries “how to catch fish” using its own experience of rapid economic development.
“To raise the national brand value, we need to be responsible in our duty as a member of global society,” she said as at a press briefing held at the Coex, southern Seoul, ahead of the G20 Seoul Summit to be held this Thursday and Friday.
“Korea has achieved economic development and democracy at the same time. But we need to go beyond that. We need to make more of a contribution to global society, so that we can be trusted and loved by the people of the world.”
Korea has made economic development part of the agenda at the Seoul summit. Calling it a “Korean Initiative,” the country hopes that the group can produce some meaningful and effective solutions to help poor countries grow their economy in a sustainable fashion.
According to the World Bank, Korea became the first country to make the transition from an ODA recipient to a donor, when it was officially recognized as the 24th OECD donor country in January 2010.
Its ODA expenditure increased to $803 million in 2008 from $212 million in 2000.
Lee said sharing Korea’s economic development experience with developing communities will be more valuable than just handing out food and money.
She also said that Korea needs to embrace multiculturalism as the number of foreign residents has exceeded 1 million. This year, one in ten marriages was an interracial one.
Lee ended her press briefing by showing videos of Korea’s historic sites.
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