(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Nov. 23)

Be humble

President Lee Myung-bak's administration has set aside 427 billion won for
"official development assistance" in its 2010 budget request, up 19.4 percent
from this year.

The seemingly sizable increase is part of an effort to raise ODA,
or government aid to developing countries, from a paltry 0.09 percent of gross
national income last year to 0.15 percent by 2012 and 0.25 percent by 2015.
On its pledge to increase ODA to more than 0.2 percent of gross national income,
Korea is scheduled to join the Development Assistance Committee of the
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development as a full member when the
panel holds a special session on Nov. 25.
Korea may take pride in joining the Development Assistance Committee. A former
diplomat, who now heads the KOICA aid agency, said in an interview, "We will
truly join the ranks of advanced nations when we become a DAC member." For Korea,
which joined the Paris-based club of well-to-do nations in the world in 1996, the
Development Assistance Committee is the last of the 25 OECD panels where it has
yet to be represented.
Korean diplomats have often complained that the woefully small amount of official
aid Korea provides to poor countries each year does not go well with its status
as the 15th largest economy in the world. They have good reason to be ashamed.
Korea has nothing much to complain about if it is regarded as being stingy in the
international community. Korea's ODA as a percentage of gross national income
accounts for less than one-third of the average of that provided by 22 members of
the Development Assistance Committee, which stands at 0.3 percent.
Even if it makes good on its pledge in 2015, Korea will still find itself well
behind many of the committee members, which are certain to increase foreign aid
in the years ahead. It will be all the more so, if they should make substantial
progress in attaining the 2015 target of 0.7 percent as part of the U.N.
Millennium Development Goals.
Korea has another reason to be humble in extending more aid to developing
countries: It has yet to pay back the massive aid it received from abroad since
liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. According to one estimate, the
total amount is equal to $60 billion in today's value.
There is no denying that it is truly remarkable for Korea to have successfully
turned itself from an aid recipient to a donor country. But it should keep itself
from being overbearing about its achievement. Instead, it should be thankful to
the erstwhile aid providers and remind itself that it has a long way to go before
it has given more than it has received.
In this regard, Korea will have to increase the portion of grants in its official
development assistance and attach as few strings as possible in providing them.
According to one estimate, however, 90 percent of grants and soft loans are
provided on the condition that they be used to make purchases from Korea. That is
truly regrettable.
It would be also grossly misguided if it should regard official development
assistance as a kind of investment. The last thing it should do is to use it as
leverage in securing supplies of natural resources, such as oil, natural gas and
rare minerals, from developing countries.
Instead, humanitarian compassion should serve as the guiding principle in the
provision of aid. More than 1 billion people live on $1 or less each day. Korea,
which experienced such extreme poverty during and after the 1950-53 Korean War,
will do well to help relieve people in the poorest countries of the pain of
hunger.
(END)