외교부

Opening Address by H.E. Min Dong-seok
Vice Minister Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea
at DAY 1 Plenary  of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness
29 November 2011. Busan, Republic of Korea

Excellencies,
Heads of delegations,
Representatives from civil society organizations,
Distinguished Participants,

I am delighted to welcome you to the “Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness”.

On behalf of the government of the Republic of Korea, host country of this Forum, I would like to thank you all for coming to Busan from every corner of the globe.  I believe that your presence here is a clear demonstration of your strong passion for development cooperation.  My special thanks also go to the OECD, the co-host of this Forum, and to the Busan Metropolitan City government for all their dedication and hard work.

Distinguished Guests,

Being here today holds particular meaning for me, because I have actually lived through a process of rapid development of my country. I have personally witnessed its transformation from a poverty-stricken nation to a modernised, industrialised one.

When I was born, Korea was one of the poorest nations in the world.  Korea’s per capita GDP was only 67 US dollars when the Korean War ended and Korea received foreign aid as other developing countries do now.  I myself was a beneficiary of such assistance. I clearly remember having milk and cornbread from containers bearing the UN or US government emblems.

Now I am here as a representative of the host country, the Republic of Korea, the 13th largest economy which successfully emerged from being a recipient to a donor.  This experience in my lifetime has imbued in me a firm belief: we can make development happen.  It is possible to emerge from poverty.  What happened in Korea can happen in other developing countries. 

Never losing sight of this, we should never stop in our efforts to explore effective aid.  And ultimately we need to find ways to turn aid effectiveness into real development.  This is exactly what the Busan High Level Forum aims to achieve.  I would therefore like to stress that your contribution in this Forum holds great significance for the future of development cooperation. 

This Forum is to be the final one in the series of the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.  On our journey of aid effectiveness through the Paris Declaration in 2005 and Accra Agenda for Action in 2008, we have learned a great many lessons on aid effectiveness.  Yet we have to acknowledge that we still have a long way to go.  There is still a lot to be done for the eventual realization of poverty reduction and sustainable development.  In this regard, our clear responsibility at this Forum is to present a new roadmap to make development happen
 
From today, the three-day program for this Forum will provide us with an opportunity to look back on our journey and, in so doing, help us move forward.  We will assess global progress in improving the quality of aid against the agreed commitments in Paris and Accra today.  And then we will share our respective experiences as we seek to pool our wisdom on how to deliver the best results.  Finally, we will agree on a Busan Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, a new vision and framework for the future.

We are now ushering in a new era of development cooperation.  The task of coming up with a new vision and framework for effective development cooperation rests in our hands.  I would call upon you to put your whole heart into fulfilling this mission here in Busan.

I am now honoured to declare the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness open. Thank you very much.