The Korea Rural Community Corp. vowed to spread Korea’s advanced agricultural technologies to developing countries by establishing a new global education center in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

The KRC on Tuesday hosted a groundbreaking ceremony of the Rural Community-International Education Exchange Center, or RC-IEEC, set to open by January 2017.

The center aims particularly at sharing the know-how that Korea has accumulated in developing the rural regions, best exemplified by the historical New Village Movement.

“The international demand for RC-IEEC’s learning programs is expected to keep increasing,” a KRC official said.

According to the state-run agricultural institution, the global exchange center can accommodate up to 300 people in its three-building complex of conference rooms, classrooms, research and development labs and guesthouses.

Among the 400 attendees of the groundbreaking ceremony were high-profile government officials from 18 countries, including the director-general of the African-Asian Rural Development Organization. Ambassadors from 11 nations, including the Philippines, Ethiopia and Myanmar, and high-profile officials of South Korean Agriculture Ministry and the Korea International Cooperation Agency also attended the ceremony.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)