KOICA, Azerbaijan explore cooperation areas
By Aynur Jafarova
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Azerbaijan have explored the cooperation areas as KOICA President paid a three-day visit to Baku on March 17-19.
During his visit, Kim Young Mok visited Azerbaijan Technical University, where the KOICA has been implementing "The Establishment of Education Information System" project since 2011.
Principal of the university Havar Mammadov thanked the KOICA for supporting the establishment of the education information system and contributing to the development of the university's human resources.
Kim, in turn, hailed Azerbaijan's economic growth over the past decade, expressing his hope to share Korea's development experience with Azerbaijan and continue mutual cooperation in many spheres.
The KOICA president also attended a plaque award ceremony.
Speaking at the event, he said South Korea and Azerbaijan have similar historical modernization processes.
"Despite the global economic downturn, Azerbaijan's economic growth has been continuing, and I think the country's potential is quite high. Energy resources boost Azerbaijan's development. Therefore, Azerbaijan's future is expected to be very promising and prosperous. Despite the economists' concern about the Dutch Disease, the KOICA is closely cooperating with Azerbaijan to make continuous growth possible during the development processes," he said.
Kim went on to note that the KOICA's support for Azerbaijan aims to be 'strategic and effective'.
"Korea's development experience in IT is based on strategic efforts, and many world-class Korean companies with global capabilities want to take part in Azerbaijan's economic development," he said.
The event was followed by a press conference where Kim said the KOICA intends to be a platform for expanding cooperation between the governments, private sectors, academic circles, and other fields for Azerbaijan's sustainable economic growth in the future.
As part of his visit to Azerbaijan, Kim met with Chairman of the Azersu OJSC Gorkhmaz Huseynov, and the two sides discussed the progress and outcome of the KOICA-Azersu joint project called "A Total Solution for Water Shortage on the Absheron Peninsula in Azerbaijan: Establishment of Water Supply and Sanitation System in Kurdakhani Settlement in the Absheron Peninsula".
The Kurdakhani project aims to solve the problem of water shortage in the Absheron Peninsula as a part of East Asia Climate Partnership. The budget of the grant project is $26.18 million.
Speaking at the meeting, Huseynov said the Azerbaijani government is conducting various projects to establish water supply, as well as sewerage system projects for the population in and around Baku.
He also noted that the Azerbaijani President pays great attention to water and sewerage systems, and thanked the Korean government for supporting Azerbaijan's development strategies.
Solving the water shortage problem is expected through this project, Huseynov said.
Kim, in turn, said if water supply is established in the Kurdakhani site, the local population who faced chronic water shortage will gain access to clean water resources, which will greatly improve the quality of their lives.
He further said if the polluted water resources are managed effectively in the future, it can prevent environmental pollution and significantly improve the local population's health conditions.
The KOICA president also said 70 percent of the Kurdakhani project is completed, and asked for more active cooperation and support from Azersu.
During the meeting, the parties agreed that the two countries should continue their development in water resources management, and decided to maintain close cooperation in future.
Later, the KOICA president was received by Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov to introduce the ODA policy of the new Korean government and the KOICA's support strategies, and mull bilateral cooperation policy.
The KOICA's grant aid to Azerbaijan started in 1994. As of 2013, it has provided a grant aid worth $32 million to Azerbaijan. The KOICA also plans to allocate $8 million as grant for Azerbaijan in 2014.
Up to now, the KOICA has been implementing 14 projects in the fields of public administration and industrial energy research. In addition to that, over 400 Azerbaijani officials and government employees were invited to the KOICA capacity building trainings aimed at sharing Korea's development experience and technology transfer.
Moreover, the KOICA has been conducting emergency assistance and multilateral cooperation projects.
The KOICA`s current projects in Azerbaijan are "Automation of Intellectual Property Rights Management System", "A Total Solution for Water Shortage on the Absheron Peninsula in Azerbaijan: Establishment of Water Supply and Sanitation System in Kurdakhani Settlement in the Absheron Peninsula", "The Establishment of Education Information System of Azerbaijan Technical University", "The Establishment of Educational Center for e-Government in Azerbaijan", and "The Project for the Establishment of Electronic Education Network and Digital Multimedia Infrastructure for Nakhchivan State University".