Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the representative organization for development cooperation, has decided to provide support in areas such as infectious diseases, education, and digital transformation support through official development aid for the next three years to overcome COVID-19 and support economic growth in Uzbekistan.

On the occasion of the visit of Uzbekistan President Mirziyoyev to Korea, KOICA President Son Hyuk-sang and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan (MIFT) Sardor Umurzakov signed 'KOICA-Uzbekistan 2022-2024 Grant Aid Cooperation Program MOU’ at the Blue House in participation of the heads of state of both countries. 

The MOU officially confirmed cooperation for 14 projects, including 5 new country cooperation projects($88 million dollar), invitation training, and dispatch of volunteers. It contains the contents of tentative discussions on future cooperation.

Uzbekistan is a representative key cooperation country of the Korean government in the Central Asian region, and its status has been upgraded to a special strategic partnership with Indonesia since 2019. Korea and Uzbekistan will cooperate each other focusing on response to infectious diseases, education, and digital areas for the next three years.

Representatively in the field of infectious diseases, Korea plans to start a new project worth $14.15 million to improve diagnostic technology for infectious diseases and to strengthen epidemiological management capabilities next year in Uzbekistan. In the field of education, in cooperation with Kookmin University and Yonsei University in Korea, a total of $10 million will be invested in △ Education curriculum improvement at Tashkent University of Information and Communication(TUIT) and Tashkent Pediatric University, △ Strengthening faculty capacity, and △ Fostering excellent research manpower.

For the full-scale promotion of the two projects included in the MOU, Im Jeonghee, Vice President of KOICA met with Agrippina Shin and Sherzod Shermatov from Ministry of public education of the Republic of Uzbekistan at the KOICA headquarters in Seongnam-si on 16th, and detailed implementation plans for two new projects and both organizations. They negotiated the share of the parties and signed the Record of Discussion(RoD).

Among them, the “Project for Promoting Quality of Preschool Education through Establishment of Early Childhood Education and Promotion Center(ECEPC) in Uzbekistan” is meaningful in the spread of K-edu, which benchmarks Korea’s ‘Nuri Course’ and localizes it.

Meanwhile, the “Project for Support for building foundation and strengthening capabilities for sustainable growth of IT Park in Uzbekistan” is a project that transfers the know-how of Korea's digital industry development and start-up support policy to revitalize the IT Park established by the Uzbekistan government in 2019.

KOICA is striving to increase aid performance and satisfaction of partner country by providing aid that meets the needs of partner countries. Through the MOU, KOICA and the Uzbekistan government select the areas that need support in accordance with the changes in Uzbekistan's development environment and suggest the direction of the mid-term grant aid program.

The Korean government has provided about 160 million dollars in grant aid to Uzbekistan over the past 30 years. In particular, it provides more than 30 development projects and consulting programs focusing on education, health care, and public administration (e-government) areas.