Ministry of Foreign Affairs Doubles Humanitarian ODA to Enhance National Prestige (Comprehensive)

Lower Tier with 0.16% ODA to GNI Ratio
Significant Expansion of Humanitarian Aid ODA Budget

Among the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' budget proposal for next year (4.2895 trillion KRW) announced on the 29th, the most noticeably increased item is the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget. It amounts to a total of 2.8963 trillion KRW, accounting for 67.5%, or about 70%, of the Ministry's entire budget. In terms of the amount of increase, it has grown by 44.3% compared to this year. The related budget was significantly increased to enhance national prestige by expanding humanitarian aid in disaster relief, food, and medical fields such as the T?rkiye earthquake, Canadian wildfires, and Ukraine reconstruction, and to strengthen the country's standing in the international community.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the budget proposal for next year submitted to the National Assembly, focusing on a significant expansion of the ODA budget. The ODA budget for humanitarian aid was greatly increased. A budget of 740.1 billion KRW was allocated to support innovation and development in developing countries and to respond to humanitarian crises such as the Ukraine war and large-scale disasters and calamities. This is 2.5 times larger than this year's budget (299.3 billion KRW).

Ranked 28th Among DAC Member Countries in ODA Relative to GNI... Will Continue to Increase Scale

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the need to expand the ODA budget has increased to firmly establish the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's core diplomatic strategy of becoming a ‘global pivotal state.’ The expansion of ODA projects was discussed following the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting held in June, presided over by President Yoon Seok-yeol, where opinions were gathered to expand South Korea's international contributions in line with its national prestige.

In fact, South Korea has been expanding its ODA scale since joining the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2010. However, as of last year, in terms of absolute budget size, it remained in the mid-range (16th) among 30 countries. The international community has continuously demanded that South Korea also expand its ODA in proportion to its economic scale. The average ODA budget relative to GNI among DAC member countries is 0.36%, while South Korea's is only about 0.16?0.17% (based on provisional figures for 2022). Even by the standard of ODA budget relative to GNI, South Korea ranks 28th out of 30 countries. Meanwhile, Japan's ODA is 6.3 times that of South Korea, Canada?which has a similar economic scale?is three times larger, and Italy's ODA is twice the size of South Korea's.

Additionally, the budget for international organization contributions to support South Korea’s activities as a United Nations Security Council member state, starting next year, was set at 817.9 billion KRW, a 23.5% increase from this year. Through its activities as a Security Council member, South Korea plans to lead a norm-based international order founded on universal values such as freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Will Expand Value-based Diplomacy and Strengthen Economic Security Response Capabilities"

A new budget of 4.6 billion KRW was allocated for the upcoming 3rd Democracy Summit, which is planned to strengthen South Korea’s role and status as a leading democracy and to reinforce the Korea-US Global Comprehensive Strategic Alliance. Furthermore, a new budget of 34.7 billion KRW was allocated to host the 2024 Korea-Africa Summit and to prepare for South Korea’s chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2025. Aid to African countries was also set at 307.3 billion KRW, an increase of 68.8 billion KRW from this year (238.5 billion KRW).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “To actively respond to an increasingly uncertain and competitive diplomatic environment, we will continue to pursue traditional security diplomacy while strengthening our response capabilities to emerging economic security issues and leading discussions on establishing international norms in new fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.”

Accordingly, next year’s budget includes 2 billion KRW for responding to major countries’ economic trends, 3.1 billion KRW for hosting the 2nd High-Level Meeting on the Military Use of Artificial Intelligence (REAIM), and 3.5 billion KRW for the 5th United Nations Plastic Treaty Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting (INC-5). Additionally, to meet the rapidly increasing demand, 141 billion KRW will be used to establish conditions for timely passport issuance, and 1.2 billion KRW will be allocated to enhance travel advisory mapping. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to make every effort to ensure the smooth progress of the 2024 budget proposal during the National Assembly review process.

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