Korea committed to supporting Ghana’s development agenda – Ambassador

The South Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Jung-Taek Lim, has said his government will continue to support Ghana in its development agenda through various Korean agencies.

“Our agencies such as the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), the Korea Exim Bank, Korean Programme on International
Agriculture (KOPIA), and Korea Trade-Investment Agency (KOTRA), are all working in Ghana to support the country’s development,” he added.

The ambassador described bilateral relations between the two countries as satisfactory and expressed his readiness to further deepen the ties, saying “cooperation and collaboration are important now more than ever”.

The ambassador, who was speaking at the KOICA alumni association of Ghana’s 2022 general assembly and knowledge-sharing session in Accra yesterday, also said that the Korean government would continue to work with the alumni for their mutual benefit.

General assembly

In attendance at the session were the alumni, the majority of who are with ministries, departments and agencies in the country who had received scholarships from the Korean government to study in South Korea.

The event also served as a knowledge-sharing platform for members and their colleagues in their areas of study during their stay in Korea.

There were discussions on health policy and financing, public management reforms and lessons learned from civil servants in South Korea.

Support

The Country Director of KOICA Ghana, Moo-Heon Kong, said the agency’s Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow (CIAT) programme assisted and guided partner countries to carve out programmes, interventions and initiatives that were context and content specific to their prevailing issues to come out with best solutions.

He said this year, the South Korean government through the CIAT programme, awarded Master’s degree scholarships to 40 Ghanaian officials to study various programmes in South Korea in the 2022 - 2023 academic year.

Mr Kong also encouraged members of the alumni to network and strategise on how the association could grow and achieve its objectives in the coming years.

Appreciation

The immediate past President of the association, Dominic Adjei Annang, expressed appreciation to the South Korean government for their support over the years and urged the new executive, led by Lovia Afoakwa, to find innovative ways of raising funds to become self-sustaining.