April 21/2022Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. TheGovernment of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (“Ethiopia”) represented by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), and The Republic of Korea, represented by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea held a policy consultation meeting. The meeting was used to discuss current programs and projects being implemented as well as identify priority cooperation areas for future engagement. The meeting was chaired jointly by H.E. Semereta Sewasew, StateMinister of the Ministry of Finance, and H.E. Mr. Kang Seokhee Ambassador of the Republic of Korea.

During the consultation, the H.E state minister Semereta said having a platform for dialogue is important to deepen cooperation and further bolster the relations between our two countries. In addition, H.E. Mr. Kang Seokhee Ambassador said that Korea has proved to be a true friend of Ethiopia over the years and emphasized that there are lessons that can be drawn from Korea’s economic development, policies that have resulted in rapid, inclusive, sustainable, and broad-based development.

At the start of the consultation, presentations were made by five Korean agencies: the KoreaInternational Cooperation Agency (KOICA), The Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), Korea Program on International Agriculture (KOPIA), and Korea Trade &Investment PromotionAgency (KOTRA) who showed the current performance of projects being implemented.

The cooperation between the two countries is guided by Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) which is based on aid effectiveness principles. It was noted that the country strategy identifies four areas of cooperation which are i)Transport and Energy ii.) Rural Development iii) Health and Sanitation and iv)Education. From the Ethiopian side representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Health, Ethiopia Electric Power and the Ethiopian RoadAuthority were among the participant.

After the presentations, discussions were held to improve the overall implementation of the projects. Finally, it was jointly decided to work towards addressing the pressing needs in Ethiopia, which include focusing on rehabilitation and recovery efforts in the country and addressing impediments in project implementation by identifying innovative solutions that promise a more efficient resource utilization.