1. Amid the growing interest of the international community in “effective development cooperation” as a way to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015, a combined 160-odd senior officials and relevant experts of some 40 countries and eight international organizations, including Minister of Finance Abul Maal A. Muhith of Bangladesh, visited Busan for the fourth Busan Global Partnership Forum (the Busan Forum) hosted by the Foreign Ministry on November 21 and 22.

° The Busan Forum has taken place since 2014 to enhance the Republic of Korea’s internationally recognized leadership in development cooperation since the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011.

※ “The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (also known as the Busan Global Partnership)”

° It is a consultative mechanism on inclusive development cooperation created in March 2012 as a result of the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011. It is participated by various development actors, including governments of donor and recipient countries, civil societies, private sectors and parliaments, as equal partners.

° It has become a signature international platform that seeks to share and learn from relevant international experiences under the shared principles for development cooperation -- the ownership of development priorities, focus on results, inclusive development partnerships, and transparency and accountability to each other.

2. The Busan Forum 2017, the fourth of its kind, mainly covered such new topics as ways to step up government-business cooperation, south-south cooperation between advanced and late developing countries, and building a monitoring system for improved aid transparency.

° The participants underscored the need to uphold the Busan principles at project sites for effective development cooperation in the SDGs era, drawing a common understanding that the Busan Forum should serve as a platform for spreading the Busan principles across the international community.

3. The ROK’s delegate, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Oh Young-ju of the Foreign Ministry, delivered opening remarks, in which she discussed the significance of the Busan Forum as an inclusive consultative mechanism in the SDGs era, as well as its way forward.

° An active discussion took place among senior government officials, including the Bangladeshi Minister of Finance, a Minister of State of the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and a State Minister of the Sudanese Ministry of International Cooperation; and delegates from such international organizations as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Commission (EC).

4. The fourth Busan Global Partnership Forum helped the mechanism become the only international platform, where governments, civil societies and enterprises can share and learn from experiences regarding effective development cooperation, reaffirming its steadily growing significance in the SDGs era.

5. Going forward, the ROK Foreign Ministry will continue efforts for the Busan Forum to become a signature international platform on development cooperation, where development actors can discuss specific ways to work together to effectively implement development cooperation.


* unofficial translation