South Korea to boost ODA to Vietnam by 50 per cent this year

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang and KOICA president Chang Won-sam. Photo: VGP

The news was announced by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) chairman Chang Won-sam at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang on March 19.

"The South Korean government and KOICA attach great importance to relations with Vietnam," he said.

South Korea's ODA for Vietnam will reach about $52 million this year, an increase of half compared to 2023.

The KOICA president said that his current visit to Vietnam aimed to assess the implementation of KOICA's projects and discuss cooperation orientations to concretise $200 million ODA commitments for 2024-2027 made by President Yoon Suk Yeol during his visit to Vietnam last June.

Established in 1991, KOICA is in charge of non-refundable aid projects sponsored by the Korean government. In recent years, KOICA's ODA projects in Vietnam have focused on public administration, healthcare, and education. The two sides are considering expanding to new areas such as climate change adaptation and digital transformation.

South Korea's non-refundable aid through KOICA to Vietnam had reached $600 million by the end of 2023.

Quang said South Korea's ODA had contributed to Vietnam’s socioeconomic development.

He asked KOICA to continue its support, contributing to the development of ties between the two countries, and for South Korea to increase the scale of its non-refundable aid to Vietnam, especially in innovation, digital transformation, and high-tech development, and a rural power supply project in the northern province of Dien Bien, with total investment of about $20 million.

South Korea is currently the leading country for foreign direct investment in Vietnam with $86 billion. It ranks second in tourism development cooperation and third in trade, with two-way turnover of $76 billion in 2023.

Vietnam South Korea's third-largest trading partner in 2023 Vietnam continued to be the third-largest trading partner of South Korea last year, despite the slowdown in imports and exports to the Southeast Asian country.

Investment from South Korea awaits greater thrust South Korean businesses and investors are waiting for more legal improvements to expand their activities in Vietnam in 2024 following signals of recovery in late 2023.

JICA sign $290 million ODA agreement for Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien Urban Railway The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a loan agreement with the Vietnamese government in Hanoi on December 29 to provide an official development assistance (ODA) loan of approximately $290 million for Line1 of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway project.

ODA continues to play vital role Vietnam is cooperating with Japan on new schemes of official development assistance. Sugano Yuichi, chief representative at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam, spoke with VIR’s Thanh Dat about how these ties will be implemented in 2024 and beyond.