In the midst of chronic U.S.-China tensions, the risk of tariffs stemming from Trump has emerged, increasing the importance of the 'Global South,' which refers to emerging and developing countries primarily located in the Southern Hemisphere, more than ever. However, for individual corporations, there are too many obstacles to overcome, such as relatively poor infrastructure, language and cultural barriers, and various regulations, to simply rush in based on potential alone.
In this context, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), an organization under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is helping domestic corporations wishing to enter developing countries by leveraging official development assistance (ODA) projects. KOICA's ODA projects that corporations can participate in include country-specific cooperation projects comprising management and supervision services, supply of goods and equipment, and humanitarian aid projects, as well as training programs.
There is also an innovative technology program (CTS) that applies startup ideas or technologies to official development assistance (ODA) to enhance the effectiveness of international development cooperation projects, along with corporate social responsibility (CSR), creating shared value (CSV) resources, and business strategies linked to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts, contributing to the development of developing countries through an 'Inclusive Business Solution (IBS).'
For the CTS program, support is provided from the business planning stage through the scale-up stage and into connections with international organizations. It offers segmented solutions for startups wishing to expand overseas, including SEED 0 (pre-innovator training and business model planning), SEED 1 (technology development), and SEED 2 (pilot projects). Excluding the planning stage, the funding for technology development and pilot projects is 300 million won and 500 million won, respectively. For the integrated CTS-TIPS program that combines Seed 1 and Seed 2, support can reach up to 800 million won per corporation.
On the 11th, at KBIZ Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, about 300 people, including officials from related institutions and private corporations, gathered for the '2025 Development Cooperation Participation Strategy Briefing,' hosted by KOICA, reflecting a keen interest in overseas ODA projects. The Development Cooperation Participation Strategy Briefing is the largest annual event hosted by KOICA, having been first held in 2017 and marking its eighth edition this year. The purpose of the event is to provide domestic corporations with a variety of information to promote global expansion through the domestic and international ODA markets and to support network building. Son Jeong-mi, Director of KOICA’s Global Cooperation and Partnership Headquarters, emphasized in her opening remarks that 'ODA projects are strategic investments for public welfare and sustainable development worldwide' and noted that 'this will be a good opportunity for our corporations to enter overseas markets and contribute to the sustainable development of developing countries.'
In his welcoming remarks, Park Jong-han, Director of the Development Cooperation Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated, 'As the scale of ODA continues to expand, we are working to establish more innovative and effective development cooperation models,' and 'private sector participation can enhance the efficiency of ODA projects with creative ideas and further broaden our contact with the citizens of the beneficiary countries, emphasizing that our contributions through ODA are a nationwide effort.'
In a subsequent speech, Vice Administrator Baek Seung-bo noted, 'Last year, the Public Procurement Service helped corporations certified under its innovation product certification program enter developing countries through collaboration with KOICA, and we will continue to work with KOICA to provide diverse and broad opportunities for our corporations’ participation in ODA projects and their overseas expansion.'
◇ From bidding to public offerings... Providing procedures and methods for both monetary and non-monetary ODA participation
The briefing was conducted in two parts. The first part focused on 'Approaches to Participation in Korean ODA Monetary and Non-Monetary Development Cooperation Projects' and included presentations in the following order: ▲ KOICA ODA procurement participation strategies and 2025 issuance plans ▲ KOICA corporate cooperation program participation strategies ▲ Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) ODA procurement project participation strategies.
Jang Seo-hee, Head of the KOICA Procurement Team 1, introduced the procurement participation procedures and tips, focusing on plans for new bids worth approximately 700 billion won this year, and subsequently, Kim Hye-won from the KOICA Corporate Cooperation Project Team specifically introduced the CTS and IBS programs, which allow corporations to propose projects more autonomously in a public offering format rather than competitive bidding. Joo Chun-ho from the Korea Export-Import Bank’s Economic Cooperation Purchasing Department guided participation in monetary aid projects through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
Team leader Jang advised, 'ODA projects are undertaken to solve public issues in recipient countries, which differs from existing business models.' He further noted that 'it is necessary to understand and approach the differences in procedures and methods between existing business models and ODA projects by identifying the needs of the recipient country’s government and pursuing projects based on that country's policies.'
The second part continued with the theme 'Global ODA Entry Strategies and Best Practices,' featuring presentations on ▲ Global ODA corporate entry strategies and Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) Korean trust funds ▲ Participation strategies for Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) projects ▲ Case studies of our corporations’ overseas expansion through participating in global ODA projects. Lee Kye-cheon, Program Manager at the Global ODA Corporate Entry Center (KODABIZ), remarked that 'the cumulative scale of the Korean trust fund reached $1.195 billion (approximately 1.737 trillion won) as of 2023, but the average participation rate of our corporations in international competitive bidding for ODA projects through this fund was only 49.7% (from 2018 to 2022),' and advised that 'participation in bids is relatively advantageous as the Ministry of Economy and Finance approves projects considering Korea's priority support areas and strengths, and in particular, CABEI stipulates that only Korean corporations can participate in bids for a certain proportion of the grants, making it a good opportunity.'
Lastly, the ODA project participation experiences of 'Dot,' a company developing assistive learning devices for the visually impaired based on braille modules, and 'Moon Engineering,' an information communication small and medium enterprise, were shared. Meanwhile, KOICA set up individual promotional booths and consulting booths outside the venue to distribute materials on global ODA expansion and conducted one-on-one consultations between procurement experts and corporate representatives. Following the briefing, KOICA will select developing countries with high demand for domestic corporations’ expansion and conduct online consultations with the heads of its overseas offices in 25 countries on the 12th.