Korea"s development assistance : performance, prospects and policy

In the 1990s, Korea is expected to become a major donor country. The first Korean concessionary loan was disbursed in 1989, and in 4/91, a new agency specializing in foreign aid management began its work. Korea"s admission to the United Nations in 9/91 is sure to raise the public"s interest in Korea"s development aid to other countries. This paper reviews the performance of Korea"s official development assistance (ODA) program and discusses major ODA policy issues that Korea can expect to face in the 1990s. The lack of previous studies on the subject posed great difficulty. Only recently have research works on this topic been available in Korea. In order to understand clearly the issues that Korea must deal with in the process of increasing ODA, the authors also had to study the policies and experiences of developed donor countries. Following an introduction, Chapter two discusses the current international environment for economic development and examines the ODA programs of other developed and developing countries. Chapter three reviews Korea"s experience as a recipient of ODA and argues the case for Korea"s active participation in aid-giving. Chapter four deals with the performance of Korea"s ODA. Detailed data on different types of Korean aid are provided and evaluated. The quality of Korean aid is also examined and is compared with aid from the developed countries. The general ideas that Korean policymakers and the public have about Korea"s aid policies and the organization of aid administration are the subjects of Chapter five. Finally, Chapter six deals with directions for Korea"s ODA in the 1990s, including major policy issues concerning the volume, quality, and sectoral and geographic allocation of Korean aid. (Author abstract)