Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Hang Chuon Naron (left) on April 17 gets firsthand experience in digital education content at the booth of Korean company Visang Education at the first Cambodia EdTech Summit held at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. (Korea International Cooperation Agency)

By Lee Dasom

The level of overseas development assistance (ODA) last year grew 24.8% from 2023 to USD 3.94 billion.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination (OGPC) on April 17 announced this in quoting provisional ODA data released the day before by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to the data, the nation's ODA ranked 13th among the OECD's 32 member states, up a notch from 2023. Korea's ODA-to-gross national income ratio, an indicator the aid's scale relative to economic size, reached 0.21%, the highest since Seoul joined the DAC in 2010.

The increase in overall ODA resulted from a balanced increase in bilateral aid (USD 3.18 billion) comprising grant (USD 2.22 billion) and credit assistance (USD 960 million), the OGPC said, despite higher volatility of the KRW-USD exchange rate compared to 2023.

The amount of bilateral aid evenly grew 37% year on year for humanitarian support for the socially vulnerable, social assistance in sectors like water resources, sanitation and public administration, and economic infrastructure such as transportation and logistics.

Seoul's multilateral aid (USD 760 million), however, decreased 9.5% because of lower investment and contributions to the World Bank, which temporarily rose in 2023 to help lower-income and vulnerable countries respond to COVID-19 and economic recovery in developing countries.

"Given our sound fiscal condition this year, the ODA budget was set at KRW 6.5 trillion to continue our commitment to take a big leap as advanced ODA country in the world's top 10," the OGPC said. "On the basis of sustainable cooperation in the future, we will keep pursuing national interests in a win-win manner with our major partner countries."

dlektha0319@korea.kr