Bangladesh among priority partner countries for Korea: envoy

Korean Ambassador Lee Jang-keun said Bangladesh is one of the prioritised partner countries for Korea's official development assistance (ODA) cooperation.

The Korean diplomat said this while calling on Fatima Yasmin, secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance, at the latter's office on Thursday.

Lee Jang-keun said Korea was the ninth largest ODA provider to Bangladesh in 2018 with a total disbursement of 69 million US dollars.

He expressed his willingness to maintain close cooperation with the ERD regarding the socio-economic development programmes of Bangladesh.

In terms of concessional loans, Korea has assisted Bangladesh with 24 development projects worth $1.14 billion through Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of Korea EXIM Bank.

Bangladesh is the second largest recipient of the EDCF. The Republic of Korea is also providing grant-type assistance to Bangladesh with an average annual amount of $17.3 million between 2014 and 2018, mainly through Korea International Cooperation Agency.

Both Korea EXIM Bank and KOICA are operating their country offices in Dhaka.