South Korea will fund $20 million to Myanmar for the establishment of a national institute for economic and social development in Nay Pyi Taw, according to a statement of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Under a memorandum of understanding signed in the Myanmar capital, the national-level Myanmar Development Institute (MDI) project will assist the evidence-based policy making process through comprehensive research and advice and conduct related capacity-building to facilitate economic development, said the statement.
Once the MDI project is formulated, it will be officially launched lasting until 2019, it said.
The MDI project includes capacity development programs, scholarship programs, short-term training courses in South Korea and in-country training courses in Myanmar and S Korea-Myanmar joint policy research programs.
“[The] MDI will play the key role of locomotive which pulls the trains of Myanmar economic development,” South Korean Ambassador to Myanmar Lee Back-Soon said.
Deputy Minister of National Planning and Economic Development Daw Lei Lei Thein said South Korea would extend a grant aid to Myanmar for this year during the upcoming visit to the country of KOICA President Kim Young-Mok later in September.
KOICA has extended a grant aid for 2013 to help Myanmar with the development of road network, implementing national statistical system, capacity building strategy for conferences, land reform program for mechanised farming and forest greening.
Statistics show that South Korea’s investment in Myanmar amounted to $3.072 billion in 96 projects as of June, accounting for 6.58 percent of the total foreign input and making it the sixth-largest foreign investor in Myanmar.
Bilateral trade between Myanmar and South Korea reached $1.569 billion in the fiscal year 2013-14, of which Myanmar’s export to S Korea accounted for $352.92 million.
