South Korea plans to spend 36 billion won (US$29.9 million) this year on a new aid program to help developing countries fight the new coronavirus and support their efforts for sustainable development, the foreign ministry said Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported. The official development assistance (ODA) program aims to strengthen Korea's humanitarian support for the countries and health care cooperation with them through various projects, such as enhancing medical facilities and ensuring stable supplies of quarantine goods. The beneficiaries include Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, Colombia, Vietnam and Cambodia. " Our government has selected the beneficiaries based on the comprehensive considerations of its policy priorities, the needs to strengthen their health care capacity and bilateral relations," the ministry said in a press release. "It will consider whether to increase the number of countries depending on the demand for such cooperation," it added. The ministry plans to proceed with the new ODA program in close collaboration with other agencies, including the health ministry, Korea International Cooperation Agency and Korea Foundation for International Healthcare.
