President Bae Jin-hwan (center, front row) of the Local Government Officials Development Institute and 19 public servants from six African governments pose for a photo after the opening ceremony of the Capacity Building Program on Local Administration conference at the President Hotel in Seoul on May 16. (Local Government Officials Development Institute)
By Kim Young Shin
Korea has shared its know-how about local administration and development with six African governments.
The Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI), part of the Ministry of the Interior, invited to Korea 19 high- and mid-ranking public officials from Mali, Senegal, Uganda, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for three weeks, until June 3, for the Capacity Building Program on Local Administration conference.
The participants will attend lectures about Korea’s local administrative systems and development strategies, and then take field trips to relevant offices. Specifically, the lectures will focus on local development and conflict management, and they will tour local administrative sites such as the Rural Development Administration, the National Agency for Administrative City Construction and the Saha-gu District office in Busan.
The LOGODI has run training programs for foreign public officials ever since 2000. As of May 2017, 4,152 public servants from 87 nations have completed parts of its curriculum. From Africa, 655 people from 25 governments have taken part in various LOGODI programs.
“I hope that the knowledge and experience shared through this training program will serve as a foundation to help the development of competency among African public officials, and promote local administrative development," said President Bae Jin-hwan of the LOGODI. “I hope this will become an opportunity for the Korean Wave of administrative services to spread further in Africa.”