A number of Ambassadors and Envoys along with a large number of senior most officials of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, Finance and Employment & Labor of the Republic of Korea, amongst others, as well as faculty members and academics attended the high profile Symposium titled “KOICA-CIAT (Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow)” at the premier academic institution of Hallym University. The Ambassador of Sri Lanka, Dr. A. Saj U. Mendis, was one of the four panelists at the Symposium. The three-hour Symposium/Seminar was moderated and Chaired by the current President of Hallym University, Prof. Choongsoo Kim.
The KOICA was established in 1991 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea as a Governmental Organization for Official Development Assistance (ODA) to enhance and boost the efficacy of South Korea’s grant aid programs for developing countries by extending and implementing grant aid and technical cooperation programs.
During the address/speech of Ambassador Dr. Mendis, he stated that Korea after the devastating Korean War in 1950s, was one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP per capita of only USD 82. During this period, the Republic of Korea solely depended on foreign aid and grants from Western countries for their basic needs and survival since 2/3 of the national production capacity of the country was destroyed and unemployment was soaring rapidly. Dr. Mendis added that fortunately or unfortunately, the donor countries markedly reduced the foreign aid and grants to South Korea, which in turn, compelled the South Koreans to develop and advance their country. He added that this was the seminal transformation and transmogrification of the advancement of South Korea from a least developed nation to an advanced economy.
Ambassador Mendis also expounded the so-called “Miracle of Han River” while stating that South Korea focused extensively on export driven economic growth. In other words, the exports of South Korea just five decades ago was USD 833 million and today it has reached USD 635 billion, an increase of 750 times, which was unprecedented in almost in any nation.
