ISLAMABAD:Ambassador Republic of Korea Suh Sangpyo on Wednesday saidthe government of Korea will increase the Economic DevelopmentCooperation Fund (EDCF) loans for Pakistan upto US$ One billion forfive years (2022-26).
In an exclusive chat with APP, the Korean Ambassador said that in2019, Korea signed the framework agreement with Pakistan to provide$500 million of EDCF loans that give financial space for theconstruction of infrastructure in Pakistan. Ambassador Sangpyo said there are multiple projects underway betweenPakistan and Korea as in the business sector, both countries partnerin the automobile, transportation, hydropower, smartphones, andconfectionaries production sectors.
While further elaborating the cooperation in various areas, he saidAdministrator of the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of theRepublic of Korea (RoK), Taewoong Hur and his delegation visitedPakistan from August 3rd to 5th past year and paid courtesy call tothe Prime Minister. Hur inaugurated the KOPIA Pakistan Center andchaired the Joint Symposium for Agricultural Technical Cooperationbetween the both countries.
The technical Cooperation projects include self-sufficiency of virusfree potato seed multiplication by Aeroponic Technique, Chilliproduction and post-harvest management technology development inPakistan, and establishment of production technology of major foddercrops in Pakistan, he added.
�New Technical Cooperation Projects Signing Ceremony between KoreaProgram on International Agriculture (KOPIA) Center, Rural DevelopmentAdministration (RDA) and Ministry of National Food Security & Research(MNFSR), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) was held on May4, 2021,� the Ambassador said. He also underlined the collaboration in the field of EDCF and ITPark. The ambassador and Minister for Information Technology andTelecommunications, Syed Amin ul Haque inaugurated the IslamabadTechnology Park in May, 2021.
�Around 1,500 Pakistani students are studying in Korea inundergraduate and graduate programs. Global Korea Scholarship (GKS)provides international students with opportunities to conduct advancedstudies in undergraduate & graduate programs at higher educationalinstitutions in the Republic of Korea in order to promoteinternational exchanges in education and mutual friendship betweencountries�, he informed.
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the University of Peshawarjointly organized a seminar on the Current Situation in Afghanistanand the Regional Plans for Peace-building on the 8th of December atthe University of Peshawar Campus. More than 200 Masters and PhDstudents attended the seminar and held interactive discussions overlunch with the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Suh Sangpyo and thepanelists.
In the field of education, he said the University level Cooperationincluded PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi and the ChungbukNational University memorandum of understanding (MOU). Theinstitutions agreed to cooperate over full spectrum of mutual interestwith specific agreements on January 26, 2022 which included academicand technical staff Exchange for joint research, joint publication ofresearch paper etc.
The Korean Embassy was also active contributing Climate Change CrisisCooperation.
The Embassy in its commitment to support the Ten Billion Tree TsunamiInitiative of the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has donatedTen Thousand Trees under the second phase of the Pak-RoK FriendshipForest, which is aimed at helping Pakistan in its fight againstClimate Change.
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The Ambassador said, �The Friendship Forest was launched in 2019 inHaripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with just 6,000 trees. Now within itsPhase-II, the Embassy will be planting 10,000 trees and with the yearsto come, it aims to continue expanding this Friendship Forest acrossthe country especially in areas which have suffered from deforestationand biodiversity loss�.
He added that the Korean Companies have completed multiple Hydropowerprojects in Pakistan. �The multiple projects are in-process mainly inthe Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The total amount ofprojects so far reached US$4 billion�, he added.
The list of companies working in the Hydropower sector includeK-Water, Daewoo E&C, Korea South East Power Corporation (KOEN), DLE&C, Lotte E&C, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Corporation (KHNP), KoreaOverseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND), Lotte,Sambu Construction, Hyundai Eng., Doosan.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Pakistan, Republic of Korea andthe UNHCR held a trilateral Letter of Exchange Ceremony in Islamabadon 26th February, 2021 in regards to the Donation of 600,000 MedicalMasks from the Government of the Republic of Korea to the Governmentof Pakistan.
He mentioned that the Korean government in its commitment to supportPakistan�s fight against COVID-19 has donated essential medicalequipment to the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan.�A handing over ceremony to mark the occasion was held at the PrimeMinister�s Secretariat on 9th December 2021. The donated equipmentincluded 2,000 Test Kits, 5 Ventilators, and 10 Oxygen Concentrators�.
The Ambassador mentioned that the Korea International CooperationAgency (KOICA) Pakistan Office handed over 10,000 hand sanitizers tothe Ministry Of Climate Change (MoCC) to strengthen the hygieneresponse system of Pakistan.
�Currently 4 projects are ongoing and KOICA Pakistan office hasgranted around $8 million to the Government of Pakistan. Among theKorean Government Sponsored Scholarships, the 70 percent of thestudents major in engineering and 25 percent of students major inNatural Sciences have been assisted by the Korean government�, headded.
Korean companies are working in the manufacturing and automobilesectors, other industries including manufacturing of smartphones,home-appliances, and confectionaries. �Also Korean Companies areworking in the infrastructure areas including building of Hydro-dams�,he informed.
