South Korea will expand participation in overseas infrastructure projects co-financed by international development banks to help its businesses tap more deeply into developing countries, the finance ministry said Sunday.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said the state-run Economic Development Cooperation Fund will extend its reach further through cooperative agreements with five major international banks.
(Yonhap)
The EDCF was launched in 1987 aimed at helping developing and less-developed countries via loans that carry low interest rates.
The five institutions are the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
Such multilateral banks run such projects jointly funded by many organizations and governments in order to collect more investors and share financial risks.
South Korea has funded a combined $1.77 billion for 40 infrastructure-building projects run by the five banks through the EDCF since 1994 when it first participated in a program initiated by the ADB.
"The EDCF will help South Korean companies win such project deals and make inroads into the infrastructure-building markets," the ministry said. "South Korea will keep cooperating with the multilateral banks in developing more joint financing projects." (Yonhap)