The office of the Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) in Vietnam was established in 1994. It has established many effective support projects to help the Vietnamese people develop their economy to improve their living conditions and help the appropriate authorities improve their working capacity. It serves as a bridge of friendship linking Vietnamese and South Korean people.  

KOICA was established by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1991 with the aim of helping developing countries through non-refundable aid and technical co-operation programmes. The KOICA Vietnam office was one of 28 KOICA representative offices in 27 countries around the world. KOICA has helped Vietnam in many areas, such as information technology, education, culture and rural development. Vietnam is always among the top four countries receiving KOICA’s largest non-refundable aid.

Notably, each of the KOICA projects is closely connected with the activities of the volunteers. In Vietnam, KOICA volunteers are almost everywhere. Unafraid of difficulties and hardships they go to many areas to help the local people build houses and improve the water resources for irrigating the fields, etc. During the severe floods in central Vietnam in 2010, they went to devastated areas to help people, improve the water resources and to teach the children. The image of KOICA volunteers in blue shirts has become familiar to young Vietnamese people during the Green Summer volunteer campaign and the Vietnam-RoK cultural exchange programmes.

In February 2011, KOICA sent 12 volunteers to Vietnam to help in teaching Korean at universities throughout the country, such as Hanoi University, Da Nang University, Hue University, Hong Ban International University, Van Hien University and Lac Hong University.  

KOICA (www.koica.go.kr) is co-operating with Vietnam in five areas:

- Building up capacity and developing human resources
- Improving the quality of life of people, particularly people living in the central region
- Developing the rural areas
- Building institutions, attaching importance to the areas relating to the shift to a market economy
- Eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, developing the economy and society

KOICA has also sent many experts to help Vietnam in urban planning. It has helped to map out a project in the master plan of developing a new urban area in Hai Phong with 3.7 million USD in aid. To help Vietnam in human resource training to implement the task of turning the country into an industrialized and modernized country by 2010, the RoK Government, via KOICA, assisted Vietnam in building four technical and information technology colleges in Hanoi, Vinh, Quy Nhon and Da Nang. KOICA also helped Vietnam in human resource training in the judicial sector through programmes of interactions, visits and professional exchanges. In March, 2011 the construction of a Judicial Cadre Training School started in Kim Son Commune, Gia Lam District, Hanoi, with three million USD from KOICA.

Kim Hyo Sun, a KOICA volunteer has been credited with devising and implementing successfully a package project worth 12,000 USD in assisting Tay Ninh provincial library to improve its facility. He said: “The days I stayed in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) were the most significant days in my life. The activities of the library after it reopens mean that the local people will enjoy the fruit of a good culture.”

In addition to the above-mentioned projects KOICA also funded the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project of the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department. With this project, which costs two million USD, Ho Chi Minh City will build and operate experimentally a BRT route. It will eventually expand the network to 20-25 routes to meet 8-10% of the travel demands of the people.

At present, under the management of the KOICA Vietnam office, nearly 100 volunteers are working in many fields in Vietnam. These include information technology, education, healthcare, culture and rural development. They collaborate with Vietnamese partners to reach the goal of “building a better world together” and more importantly, to build a friendship bridge between Vietnam and South Korea.

VPN