Gov't sets up public diplomacy plans

Rachel Lee, Korea Times

image (not from article) from

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a set of action plans for next year to strengthen public diplomacy, Friday.

This is the first comprehensive program after the country established its first basic public diplomacy plan in August.

The plan includes public diplomacy projects worth 410 billion won submitted by 15 metropolitan councils and nine central administrative agencies. It excludes, however, Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects and other overseas investment- and economic cooperation-related projects.

The plan consists of 49 tasks in six fields, including infrastructure, policy, knowledge and culture, according to the ministry. By content, it includes about 320 culture-related projects, 200 knowledge-related projects and 190 policy-oriented diplomacy projects.

The foreign ministry said it will host a think-tank forum targeting opinion leaders in the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Other projects include networking events to raise awareness of domestic policies among foreign diplomatic missions in Seoul, surveys to find out the country's perceptions abroad, and conferences with private committees to expand technologies and correct factual errors regarding the country.

The ministry said it has for the first time summed up a public diplomacy plan as part of the government's efforts to organize projects by central administrative agencies and local governments.

Based on the overall plan, the diplomatic offices' public diplomacy activities will be set up, the ministry said.

It added the ministry will actively cooperate with such agencies and institutions in order to push ahead with planned activities.

A committee on public diplomacy, a governmental coordinating body on public diplomacy, held its first meeting on Aug. 10 with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha as its chair.

The meeting brought together the committee's four members from the private sector: 10 members from the government and three observers. The committee finalized Korea's first basic plan on public diplomacy (2017-2021), which will serve as a public diplomacy guideline during the tenure of the Moon Jae-in government, and designated the Korea Foundation (KF) as its public diplomacy overseer. The KF was founded in 1992 for international exchanges and public diplomacy initiatives.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to spend 3.48 trillion won on ODA projects next year.

The budget, up 412 billion won from this year, has for the first time surpassed the 3 trillion won mark since the country joined the OECD Development Assistance Committee in 2010.

Next year's budget includes projects worth 150 billion won with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which are now recognized as ODA projects, the government said.

About 74 percent of the budget will be spent on supporting developing nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs).