Strengthening 'Contactless Diplomatic Capabilities' in Response to COVID-19... Ministry of Foreign Affairs Budget Up 3.6% Next Year

2021 Budget Proposal 2.8432 Trillion KRW... 99.3 Billion KRW Increase from Previous Year
Strengthening Joint Response and Roles on Global Issues like Emerging Infectious Diseases and Sustainable Growth... 4.9% Increase in Official Development Assistance

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared a budget proposal for next year amounting to 2.8432 trillion KRW, a 3.6% increase compared to this year, and submitted it to the National Assembly. In a situation where face-to-face diplomacy is difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry plans to focus investments on building non-face-to-face and digital diplomatic infrastructure, developing diplomatic content to spread the Korean Wave technology using overseas diplomatic missions, and more.

On the 1st, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had prepared the budget proposal based on these points. A ministry official explained, "Next year's budget plan for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs includes various new projects that can expand diplomatic horizons while actively responding to the COVID-19 situation, where vigorous face-to-face diplomacy as in the past is difficult," adding, "It is expected to respond to the new diplomatic paradigm of promoting non-face-to-face exchanges."

The general account, including personnel expenses, basic expenses, and project expenses, was prepared at 2.7352 trillion KRW, a 4.8% increase from this year. Personnel expenses were set at 366.8 billion KRW, a 4.0% increase from this year. Official Development Assistance (ODA) and contributions increased by 4.9% and 6.2%, respectively, compared to this year. On the other hand, the International Exchange Fund and Disease Control Fund were reduced by 4.2% and 34.8%, respectively, resulting in an overall fund expenditure reduction of 19.2%.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will first invest 6.7 billion KRW and 10 billion KRW in digital public diplomacy and the digitalization of accounting and administrative support systems at overseas diplomatic missions, respectively. While producing digital content on the Korean government's COVID-19 quarantine experience, it plans to build a digital public diplomacy platform to strengthen interactive and non-face-to-face communication. The accounting and administrative support systems of over 180 overseas diplomatic missions will be digitalized to improve work efficiency and the quality of services to the public. A budget of 7.3 billion KRW was also allocated to apply the Korean-style Green New Deal project to overseas missions and support domestic companies' overseas expansion through this.

Additionally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allocated budgets of 15.9 billion KRW, 950 million KRW, and 1.5 billion KRW for attracting the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G), hosting the Global New Security Forum, and the Korea-Africa Forum, respectively. It will also invest 3.4 billion KRW for the UN Peacekeeping Ministers' Meeting, held for the first time among Asian countries, and 900 million KRW for the 30th anniversary event of Korea's UN membership.

Budgets to strengthen cooperation with the United States and China, as well as to expand exchanges and cooperation with countries in the New Southern region such as the establishment of the Korea-ASEAN Financial Cooperation Center, were also increased. The budget to strengthen strategic special cooperation with North American countries increased from 4.6 billion KRW this year to 5.7 billion KRW next year, and the budget to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Northeast Asian countries increased from 2.7 billion KRW to 3.1 billion KRW. Cooperation with ASEAN and Southeast Asian countries was increased by 3.7 billion KRW from 1.8 billion KRW.

Efforts to enhance the national image will also be strengthened by expanding the ODA and international organization contribution budgets. ODA increased by 45 billion KRW from 918 billion KRW to 963 billion KRW next year, and international contributions increased by 31.3 billion KRW from 507.5 billion KRW to 538.7 billion KRW.

A ministry official explained, "We will expand strategic and humanitarian ODA support to developing countries vulnerable to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and actively participate in the international community's medium- to long-term recovery efforts, thereby further expanding our status and role in the international community."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.