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| With the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the importance of the digital economy has increased. Nevertheless, the social and economic divide between those who have access to new technologies and those who do not has widened. As the international community came to understand that narrowing the digital divide should be a |
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| significant part of any development cooperation initiative, donors have started to make efforts to support ICT in developing countries.
In 2005, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) included the ICT sector in its statistical data, and major donor countries started to actively incorporate ICT into their projects. A vast majority of DAC members agreed that ICT was an effective tool to alleviate poverty, and thus recommended donors to integrate ICT in all cooperation programs, such as education, agriculture, health, budget management, and gender equality.
KOICA implements projects related to "e-government" to promote the administrative efficiency and transparency of developing partner governments. Since narrowing the digital divide in a knowledge-based society expedites poverty alleviation and promotes sustainable economic development, KOICA has made continuous efforts to reduce the digital divide and facilitate economic development.
KOICA's ICT cooperation focuses on ① fostering ICT human resources by strengthening ICT education infrastructure, and enhancing ICT education capacity
② implementing e-government initiatives such as drawing up ICT master plans, and building infrastructure and systems, and ③ expanding ICT usage by launching internet phone networks, remote medical treatment, computerized libraries,
Through these assistance programs, KOICA is striving to achieve Target 18 of MDG 8, which aims to create global partnerships for development and make the benefits of new technologies available to the developing world. |
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| In 2006, KOICA spent US$ 25.405 million or 13.1% of KOICA's total project budget on ICT cooperation. The two largest beneficiary regions were Asia and the Middle East, which took 35% and 26% of the ICT assistance budget respectively. The top five partners were Iraq, Vietnam, Morocco, Laos and Bangladesh, accounting for 47.0% of the ICT budget or 6.0% of KOICA's entire project budget. |
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| Top 5 partner countries in ICT (Unit : US$ in thousands) |
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| Rank |
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Country |
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Amount |
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Percentage(%) |
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| Of KOICA’s total budget |
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Of KOICA’s budget for the region |
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| 1 |
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Iraq |
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5,116 |
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2.6 |
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20.1 |
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| 2 |
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Jordan |
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2,429 |
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1.3 |
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9.6 |
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| 3 |
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Peru |
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1,515 |
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0.8 |
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6.0 |
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| 4 |
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Tanzania |
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1,465
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0.8 |
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5.8
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| 5 |
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Bangladesh |
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1,322
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0.7 |
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5.2 |
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| Total |
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11,847 |
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6.2 |
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46.7 |
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| Major Projects in 2006 |
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Human Resource Development in ICT
- Establishment of an IT Training Center in Arbil, Iraq
(US$ 4.5 million / from 2006 to 2008)
- Establishment of the Korea-Vietnam Friendship IT College
(US$ 10 million / from 2004 to 2007)
- Establishment of the Center of IT Innovation for Human Development, Morocco
(US$ 1.5 million / from 2006 to 2007)
- Establishment of the Bangladesh-Korea ICT Training Center for Education
(US$ 1.4 million / from 2006 to 2007) |
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Establishment of an E-government
- Strengthening of Governmental Management of International Cooperation in Peru
(US$ 600,000 / from 2006 to 2007)
- 3rd Phase of the Project for the Computerization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lao PDR
(US$ 1.2 million / from 2006 to 2007)
- Support for the Setting up of the Consumer Protection Office, El Salvador
(US$ 500,000 / from 2005 to 2006)
- Establishment of Electronic Archives in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mongolia
(US$ 300,000 / in 2006) |
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