Government Announces New $50 Million Contribution to Ukraine Reconstruction Support Fund

Disaster Response Special Fund Participation Intent Letter Signing
UK and Economic Cooperation Channel "Creating a Friendly Investment Environment"

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on the 8th that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to contribute 50 million dollars (approximately 66.3 billion KRW) to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)'s 'Disaster Response Special Fund,' established to support Ukraine, which is at war with Russia.

This contribution ranks fourth among donor countries to the EBRD fund and is a follow-up measure to the '2.3 billion dollar support plan for Ukraine' announced at the G20 summit in September last year. Through this participation, a Korean account has been established within the fund to designate priority support areas and to receive regular reports on project discoveries in those areas.

Kim Byung-hwan, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, who visited the UK to sign this LOI, said, "I hope that many reconstruction projects will be discovered and promoted in connection with Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund in the future."

Kim Byung-hwan, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to participate in the EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund (CRSF) after meeting with J?rgen Rigterink, Senior Vice President, at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) headquarters in London on the 6th (local time).

During his visit to the UK from the 5th to the 7th, Vice Minister Kim met with Sakip Bhatti, the UK Deputy Minister for Technology and Digital Economy at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote the 'Korea-UK Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP)'.

According to this MOU, the two countries plan to promote the KSP this year focusing on strengthening digital standards and core technology capabilities. The Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that this will be an important opportunity to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the digital and core technology sectors, following the 'Korea-UK Digital Partnership' established during President Yoon Suk-yeol's state visit to the UK last year.

On the same day, Vice Minister Kim also signed an MOU to establish the official economic cooperation channel between the two governments, the 'Korea-UK Investment Cooperation Dialogue'. After meeting with Lord Johnson, the UK Minister of State for Investment at the Department for Business and Trade, Vice Minister Kim expressed expectations that the newly established investment cooperation dialogue, following the 'Downing Street Agreement' last November, will serve as an opportunity to introduce investment opportunities in each other's countries to companies and financial institutions and support investments, thereby fostering a friendly investment environment. Both sides plan to begin working-level and high-level consultations soon.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister Kim visited the State Street Bank (SSBT) London branch to check the progress of the pilot implementation of the foreign exchange market structure improvement, which has been underway since last month. SSBT was the first foreign financial institution to complete the registration process for participation in the domestic foreign exchange market. Vice Minister Kim observed the process of KRW-USD foreign exchange transactions between SSBT London and domestic financial institutions on that day. So far, more than 15 foreign financial institutions have applied for registration to participate in the domestic foreign exchange market, and five institutions, including SSBT London, have completed registration.

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