The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Kim Yong-hwan, “Korea Eximbank”) announced on August 13 that it published ‘2013 ODA in Numbers’, a compilation of ODA* statistics of DAC** member countries.
Updated from the first edition published last year, this second edition comes at a time of heightened public interest in ODA since Korea joined the DAC in 2010.

* ODA (Official Development Assistance): assistance given by donor countries to developing countries, using public funds to promote the economic development and welfare of the recipient countries.

**DAC (Development Assistance Committee): A committee under the OECD bringing together leading donor countries, established to support the development of developing countries. Korea joined DAC in 2010 as its 23rd member country.

The booklet contains statistics on Korean ODA from 1987, when Korea first started collecting data, to 2011, categorized by type, region, and sector in an easy-to-understand format.

According to the booklet, the size of Korean ODA in 2011 (net disbursement basis) jumped 12.8 percent from 2010 to USD 1.3 billion despite the global economic recession, moving Korea’s ranking up one place to 17th among the 23 DAC member countries.

A Korea Eximbank official noted, “The booklet contains not just Korean but also DAC member country statistics, and so can serve as a useful guide to setting ODA policy by taking into account global ODA trends.”

Korea Eximbank was appointed as the agency in charge of collecting Korean ODA statistics by the Committee for International Development Cooperation under the Office for Government Policy Coordination in October 2010, and has since been compiling ODA-related data from 60 government agencies including the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Environment, and KOICA.