1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Lee Dong-phil signed a “Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) on the Promotion of International Development Cooperation Projects in Agriculture and Rural Affairs” at the Foreign Ministry on August 6. The two sides agreed to actively cooperate in development cooperation projects in agriculture and rural affairs.

2. The MOU was signed to increase “development cooperation projects tailored to each recipient country” in agriculture and rural affairs by combining the expertise and global network of the Foreign Ministry’s KOICA, which has conducted grant programs in developing countries for the past 20 years, with MAFRA’s experiences in eradicating poverty in rural areas and increasing rural household income.

3. Under the MOU, the Foreign Ministry will work to encourage MAFRA and relevant organizations’ experts to actively participate in feasibility study and project evaluation for KOICA’s grant programs. The Ministry also agreed to share with MAFRA KOICA’s experiences and know-how accumulated from grant programs in agriculture and rural affairs. Furthermore, the two Ministries agreed to facilitate cooperation between their officials overseas, expand technical cooperation projects and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in developing countries, and cooperate on creating a pool of experts in agriculture and rural affairs.

4. Besides the MOU with MAFRA, the Foreign Ministry also signed MOUs with the Ministry of Security and Public Administration (August 2011), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (October 2012) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (July 2013) to enhance inter-agency cooperation in the area of development cooperation. 


               Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation