ADDIS ABABA-The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) said that it is offering scholarship opportunities for Ethiopian government employees to undertake full-time postgraduate studies in Korean universities in the view to enhancing government-to-government relations.
KOICA Country Director Dong Ho Kim told The Ethiopian Herald that Ethiopia is among the 23 African countries chosen to KOICA Scholarship Program (SP) that aimed to nurture key leaders could contribute to the socio-economic development of Ethiopia and other developing countries.
According to him, governance, rural development, health, technology, environment and energy are the selected MA/MSC programs beneficiaries would attend in Korean universities.
Kim stated that KOICA fully and partially covers the tuition, living and related expenses of students during their 18 months stay at Korean universities. The agency would also render scholarship completion grants and other benefit packages for students that successfully completed studies and back to homeland.
Noting the paramount importance the scholarship has played in enhancing the capacity of beneficiaries and thereby the public sector at large, he indicated that KOICA would supplement government’s efforts towards the realization of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).
Besides its engagement to finance agriculture and rural development, education and women empowerment activities, the agency also set target to enlarge vocational and technical education among local farmers and young entrepreneurs.
Ethiopia and South Korea have strong collaboration in education sector, Kim said, adding that the agency needs to develop its effort in an inclusive and sustainable manner for the benefit of the people and economy of Ethiopia.
Representative of Ethiopia’s Finance Minister, Dereje Girma said on his part that the scholarship would play essential role in building the capacity of Ethiopia’s public sector and KOICA’s covering of the tuition and related expenses is also a good opportunity to advance the capacity of the bureaucracy through education.
The representative also lauded the shift KOICA has made from social assistance to economic cooperation, expressed optimism that the move advances government’s engagement to the execution of the GTP II goals.
It was indicated that the applicants of the scholarship should be government employees with a minimum of two years of experience in the field of study and they need to be officially nominated by a pertinent government organ.
BY BILAL DERSO
