[Fellowship Program] Local Economic Development and Saemaul Undong  for Lao Poverty Reduction Fund(PRF)

                                    Feb. 7 ~ Feb. 8   2017  Suwon, Korea 

  In the morning of February 7, 2017 Dr. Chung Ki Whan, KIRD President, welcomed and accepted the Lao Poverty Reduction Fund(PRF) Delegation. The ten(10) member delegation from Lao PDR headed by Md. Boulay Sayavong, Director of Finance and Administration Division, PRF, visited Korea for a study tour for learning some development experience in Korea¡¯s rural and community development, especially Saemaul Undong and poverty reduction. Ant the delegation takes part in a two(2)-day fellowship program: Local Economic Development and Saemaul Undong on February 7 and 8 this week.

  A welcome and inception ceremony was held in at the meeting hall, the Value High End Hotel downtown in Suwon in the early morning on February 7, 2017. The Korea Institute for Rural Development (KIRD), the program execution agency, designed the two-day program course in accordance with the request from the Lao PRF.  The program is composed of lectures on Korea¡¯s poverty reduction and rural community development program including Saemaul Undong  as well as study and field visits to Saemaul Undong Training Center and some interesting destinations of rural area. In particular the delegation could learn from the field experience accumulated  in the process of the Integrated  Rural Development Project with Saemaul Undong(SMU)¡¯s Participatory Approach in Lao PDR*, a global SMU project in Laos, which is now under full implementation since 2015 in  the two provinces: Vientiane and Savannakhet. Eventually, the program is expected to help the participants to broaden insights for rural and community development as well as to deepen the understanding on rural transformation by sharing Korea¡¯s development experience.

   * The Korea International Cooperation Agency(KOICA) offers a global SMU project program, the Integrated Rural Development Project with Saemaul Undong¡¯s Participatory Approach in Lao PDR. The Project is based in thirty(30) villages of Vientiane and Savannakhet provinces as well as the capital, aiming to establish a community-based rural development model in Lao PDR by utilizing the practices learned from the development experience of Korea¡¯s New Community Movement(Saemaul Undong). KOICA extends a grant of US$14.55 million(equivalent to 117 billion kip) from 2015 to 2019.