Park Eung-kyuk, left, president of the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA), talks with Dibaba Abdetta, Ethiopian ambassador to Korea, during the latter’s courtesy call to Park’s office in southern Seoul, Wednesday. They discussed a wide range of ways to promote bilateral cooperation in the sector of public administration. Ethiopia is one of 16 countries which sent troops to fight North Korean communist invaders during the 1950-53 Korean War. / Courtesy of KIPA

Dibaba Abdetta, Ethiopian ambassador to Korea, said that he views Korea as the "best model country," for Ethiopia to emulate for its developmental experience and nation-building expertise.

In a discussion with Park Eung-kyuk, president of the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA), Amb. Abdetta praised the KIPA-published book "Korea: From Rags to Riches," a collection of articles portraying how Korea industrialized quickly and progressed to an advanced level.

In Ethiopia the book is now in wide use as a guide book for government officials and enterprises, which are engaged in nation-developing projects he said.

Other topics included ways of promoting cooperative ties in the sector of public administration, focusing on exchanges of personnel and administrative information.

Park gave another book, "Discover Korea in Public Administration" published by KIPA to the ambassador, with an explanation that the book is an encyclopedia to introduce the role of administrators and bureaucrats.

Ambassador Abdetta said that he was deeply moved after reading Korea's 60 success stories especially about Koreans' "ppalli ppalli" can-do spirit. The Korean success stories were published in a series and have been compiled into a book.