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194108
Sun, 07/10/2011 - 23:51
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https://oananews.org//node/194108
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Lee reiterates S. Korea's commitment to share development know-how with Ethiopia
By Chang Jae-soon
ADDIS ABABA, July 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Sunday that Ethiopia can learn not only from South Korea's successful experience of economic development, but also from the trials and errors that the country went through in the course of that development.
Lee made the remark during an economic policy workshop with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and dozens of top Ethiopian policymakers, saying the biggest present South Korea can offer to developing nations is to share its development experience, the presidential office said in a release.
Meles briefed participants in the workshop on Ethiopia's five-year development blueprint, known as the "Growth and Transformation Plan," and said South Korea's economic development experience will be taken into account in carrying out the plan, the office said.
Lee praised Meles for leading Ethiopia's economy to grow more than 10 percent annually in recent years and noted the African nation's efforts to introduce clean energy, such as solar and wind power, to cushion the economy from oil price fluctuations, it said.
South Korea's state-run think tank, the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, signed an agreement on sharing economic development data with Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute.
The two agencies are in charge of Ethiopia's five-year development plan.
Ethiopia has been a focus of Seoul's efforts to transfer its development know-how to Africa.
South Korea more than doubled its official development assistance to Ethiopia from US$4.16 million in 2009 to $10.32 million last year and helped the African nation draw up a "green growth" economic development plan, officials said.
In addition, South Korea has helped Ethiopia establish the Agricultural Transformation Agency, modeled after Seoul's former top economic agency, the Economic Planning Board. The economic agency is credited with designing and implementing South Korea's economic development in the 1960s and the 1970s.
Starting in the second half of this year, South Korea will also help Ethiopia draw up implementation strategies for its five-year development plan and establish policies to support small- and medium-sized enterprises, officials said.
On Sunday morning, Lee visited a poverty-stricken village, about 90 kilometers west of the capital Addis Ababa, for another round of volunteer work seen as a symbolic gesture of repaying Ethiopia for fighting alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Lee and first lady Kim Yoon-ok had made a similar visit to an Addis Ababa village on Saturday, spraying disinfectant in alleys, toilets and sewers in the Kebena Village, one of four major poverty areas in the Ethiopian capital.
During Sunday's visit to the village of Gare Arera, Lee, wearing a sky-blue helmet, used a pickaxe to help repair wooden village facilities.
A total of 122 Ethiopian soldiers were killed and 536 injured during the 1950-53 Korean War. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Ethiopia's participation in the war. South Korean officials have said that the main theme of Lee's three-day visit to Addis Ababa would be to show gratitude for the country's help.
Ethiopia was the final leg of Lee's three-nation African trip that also took him to South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lee was scheduled to depart for home Sunday night and arrive in Seoul on Monday.
ADDIS ABABA, July 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Sunday that Ethiopia can learn not only from South Korea's successful experience of economic development, but also from the trials and errors that the country went through in the course of that development.
Lee made the remark during an economic policy workshop with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and dozens of top Ethiopian policymakers, saying the biggest present South Korea can offer to developing nations is to share its development experience, the presidential office said in a release.
Meles briefed participants in the workshop on Ethiopia's five-year development blueprint, known as the "Growth and Transformation Plan," and said South Korea's economic development experience will be taken into account in carrying out the plan, the office said.
Lee praised Meles for leading Ethiopia's economy to grow more than 10 percent annually in recent years and noted the African nation's efforts to introduce clean energy, such as solar and wind power, to cushion the economy from oil price fluctuations, it said.
South Korea's state-run think tank, the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, signed an agreement on sharing economic development data with Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute.
The two agencies are in charge of Ethiopia's five-year development plan.
Ethiopia has been a focus of Seoul's efforts to transfer its development know-how to Africa.
South Korea more than doubled its official development assistance to Ethiopia from US$4.16 million in 2009 to $10.32 million last year and helped the African nation draw up a "green growth" economic development plan, officials said.
In addition, South Korea has helped Ethiopia establish the Agricultural Transformation Agency, modeled after Seoul's former top economic agency, the Economic Planning Board. The economic agency is credited with designing and implementing South Korea's economic development in the 1960s and the 1970s.
Starting in the second half of this year, South Korea will also help Ethiopia draw up implementation strategies for its five-year development plan and establish policies to support small- and medium-sized enterprises, officials said.
On Sunday morning, Lee visited a poverty-stricken village, about 90 kilometers west of the capital Addis Ababa, for another round of volunteer work seen as a symbolic gesture of repaying Ethiopia for fighting alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Lee and first lady Kim Yoon-ok had made a similar visit to an Addis Ababa village on Saturday, spraying disinfectant in alleys, toilets and sewers in the Kebena Village, one of four major poverty areas in the Ethiopian capital.
During Sunday's visit to the village of Gare Arera, Lee, wearing a sky-blue helmet, used a pickaxe to help repair wooden village facilities.
A total of 122 Ethiopian soldiers were killed and 536 injured during the 1950-53 Korean War. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Ethiopia's participation in the war. South Korean officials have said that the main theme of Lee's three-day visit to Addis Ababa would be to show gratitude for the country's help.
Ethiopia was the final leg of Lee's three-nation African trip that also took him to South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lee was scheduled to depart for home Sunday night and arrive in Seoul on Monday.
