The bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and South Korea has been growing in economic, social, political and cultural areas, documents reveal. In fact, the diplomatic relations between the two countries dates back to the dates Ethiopia sent its 6,037 troops (the Kagnew Battalion) to the Korean War in 1951-1953.
The need to deepen ties would further boost economic and societal development matters such as investment, trade and culture, beyond that of peace, security and cooperation. This relationship, nowadays, has been strengthening through Road School Program, local corporate social responsibility (CSR) and cultural exchanges here in Ethiopia.
The Road School Program has been carried out by Korean Expressway Corporation (KEC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport of Ethiopia from 6-9 May, 2019 in Addis Ababa. The purpose of the program according to the road school program plan is to share a 50 year long accumulated technology and experience of KEC to Ethiopia.
It is aimed at cultivating the capacity of Ethiopian government officials, experts and graduate students in the field and contributing to the economic development of the country. Among the beneficiaries from the road school program as per the school plan are Ministry of Transport, Ethiopian Roads Authority, Ethiopian Toll Roads Enterprise, Addis Ababa City Road Authority and other relevant institutions.
Hiwot Mosissa, State Minister, Ministry of Transport told The Ethiopian Herald that the goal of the school is to share experience and narrow the gap Ethiopia encountered in the field of road construction. “We have begun many road constructions including expressways and urban complex roads. However, our knowledge and experience in the sector is limited especially in project management, Value Engineering including maintenance and Public Private Partnership (PPP).”
Adding she said that Korea on the other hand, has particularly changed its people’s livelihood in the road construction sector in a short period of time. They have constructed over 4,000 km of express roads which is supported by Intelligent Transport System (ITS). This technology as to the State Minister, simplifies toll collection, repairing system, information dissemination and control of traffic movement.
They share experience in the areas of dipper technology gaps for Ethiopian experts who came from different institutions through world qualified experts.She said “Providing the training here enables many experts as we are working with universities such as; Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University.”The program is supported financially by the World Bank, she noted.
Hoonmin LIM, Korea’s ambassador to Ethiopia for his part said that road transformation is one of the major areas of mutual cooperation between the two countries. “Actually, it is one of our strategies to provide official development assistance for Ethiopia. That is why we have dispatched one expert to the Ministry of Transport since 2016 and thanks to his initiative today we are holding Road School Program which is composed of lectures for sharing knowledge in the areas of transportation.
There are also some programs for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). More than 20 volunteers travelled to Ethiopia to make some campaign and to provide some assistance to the people under this program.” As of the ambassador, there is no doubt that the Social Overhead Capital (SOC) infrastructure is the backbone of economy. In particular, without an appropriate level of transportation network, sustainable economic development is not attained.
Adding, he said that maintenance of the road network that enabled the smooth movement of people and goods was the very foundation of the economic development of Korea. This is why the Ethiopian government places a high priority on the provision of advanced transport system allocating about half of the national budget to constructing SOC infrastructure in transportation. According to Yang, DaeGwi, KEC Director, Road and Transport Policy Advisor for the Ministry of Transport of Ethiopia, the volunteers are engaged in various activities like repairing schools, repairing and renovating houses of Ethio-Korea veterans.
They have repaired 7 houses until now and their plan is to repair 20 houses in the long run. He said that this is what they can do to make the veterans happy as a reward of their sacrifice they had paid in blood and sweat during the Korea war. KIM, Jae-Uoong, Director overseas project team and project division told The Ethiopian Herald that the school is a wonderful opportunity for the relation of the two countries.
The trainees form different institutions in which most of them are engineers are eager to catch the training and want to know how to solve problems. He said, “Since we cannot support in budget, we are focusing on knowledge transfer especially in the High-tech area.” Abebayehu Gebresilassie, deputy manager of South Nations Nationalities and People Road Authority and master of road construction repairing business process is one of the attendees of the school.
He said, “The training is timely and decisive as we are undergoing the beginning stage in road construction in relation to their current status.” Morevover, he said that the cooperation strengthens the long aged relationship of the two sisterly countries. Mehari Addisse, team leader of infrastructure development follow up and regulatory at the Ministry Of Transport also has been attending the school program.
He said, “Our institution is on the transformation process foot stepping the national transformation and the training is appropriate in uplifting the quality of our road construction capacity. They carry out everything aided by technology what we do habitually and by viewing. Therefore, we have gained many benefits from their experience.” Altogether, about 42 officials and experts from 14 different offices have been attending the school and received certificate on completion of the training.
The Ethiopian Herald, May 14/2019
BY BACHA ZEWDIE
