The Korea Rural Economic Institute (President: Choi Sei-kyun) held a joint international symposium with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) from 10 a.m. on Friday, May 9 at IFAD headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The symposium’s theme was “The Republic of Korea’s Development Experience: An Option for Transforming Asia?” The symposium aimed to examine Korea’s development experience, especially agricultural and rural development experience and to review its applicability to agricultural and economic development in the world including Asia.

IFAD Vice President Michel Mordasini said, “In the foreign-exchange crisis in 1997, the Korean people gathered even their gold rings voluntarily to redeem their country’s foreign loan.” He added, “In the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, Korea showed prompt and effective economic policies and regulations.”

In his opening remarks, KREI Vice President Choi Ji-hyeon introduced four periods of Korea’s agricultural development process after the formation of the government and said, “Korean agriculture accomplished fast development with Korea’s socio-economy over the past 50 years.” He also said that Korea has human resources, experience, and knowledge enough to share with developing countries.

The symposium consisted of two sessions. The title of the first session was “Drivers of Korean Economic Development,” and that of the second session was “Relevance of Korea’s Development Experience for Asian Countries.” Besides KREI and IFAD, ambassadors of five countries including Korea and Vietnam examined Korea’s rapid economic development in the past 50 years and its poverty eradication process and discussed the applicability of Korean development experience to developing countries including Asia through presentations and discussions.

KREI research director Heo Jang, who participated as a panel member, said, “Korea’s green revolution in the 1970s resulted from a combination of the development of new varieties, efficient dissemination to farms, and production infrastructure development including water resources.” He emphasized that rice self-sufficiency in the agriculture sector had enabled fast industrialization and economic growth.

KREI and IFAD plan to strengthen their partnership with the symposium as a beginning.