WASHINGTON, 16th December 2009: South Korea Wednesday prepaid in its entirety its outstanding debt of 33,5 million US dollar to the International Development Association (IDA), the World Banks fund for the 79 poorest countries in the world.
– Korea has been a close partner of IDA for almost five decades, first as a recipient of IDA soft loans and later as a donor, said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Vice President for Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships.
– We greatly appreciate the Government of Koreas decision to prepay its outstanding credits, which will help increase IDA’s capacity to provide additional support to the poorest countries in the world, added he.
A member of IDA since 1961, Korea received its first IDA funding in 1962, stopped borrowing from IDA in 1973, and became a donor to the Association in 1977.
As a recipient of IDA funding the Korean government used IDA financing to support invest-ments in areas such as agriculture, irri-gation, education, and railroads.
Since graduating from IDA, Korea had been paying off its outstanding debt with IDA. Todays prepayment was made in one lump sum!
– Our economy is now recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis and we recognize the importance of assisting the worlds poorest people as they continue to readjust to the shocks said Kyung-Wook Hur, South Korean Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance.
– IDA is a major source of financing for the poorest countries and my Government will continue to provide strong support, noted he.
With the Asian countrys economy recovering solidly, Korea is well-positioned to scale up its development assistance to developing countries. The Government in Seoul has announced its intension to increase its ratio of ODA to gross national income from 0,09 percent in 2008 to 0,25 percent by 2015.
Korea acceded to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD on November 25, reflecting the countrys objective to provide additional assistance to countries in need and according to DAC standards. Korea is the first former aid recipient to become a DAC member.
Korea is also the next Chair of the G-20 forum in 2010. Having been an emerging market country when the G-20 was established and now successfully transitioned to the 10th largest OECD economy, Korea and is uniquely placed to demonstrate leadership by sharing with low income countries the lessons from its own development experience.
For more information on IDA please visit: www.worldbank.org/ida
