KRC President Kim In-sik poses with Vietnamese Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue after they held talks  in Vietnam on July 12. (Photos: KRC)

Korea Rural Community Corp. (KRC) is upgrading its overseas projects, designed to spur the development of the agricultural industry and farming villages of emerging countries.

KRC, celebrating the 52nd year since its entry into the global market, has been expanding its overseas presence continuously while undergoing trial and error, even though there are language barriers, different laws and systems, natural environment, and numerous unpredictable variables.

That is attributable to the fact that Korea has accumulated experience and technology while developing the Korean farming industry and rural villages, and the nation has earned confidence from countries across the world. KRC took its first step into a foreign market as an 18-member delegation comprising of repair and agricultural experts was dispatched to Vietnam in 1967.

At that time, the purpose of the delegation was designed to transfer technology related to producing grain to Vietnamese farmers, who had been suffering from the consequences of a devastating war, and provide an educational training.

Later, Korea, gaining recognition over the achievement, began overseas market entry exploration in earnest as the nation was awarded an order from the Asian Development Bank to implement a project to develop a 55,000 ha Meking River Delta area.

As for major achievements KRC has made abroad, an KRC official said, “Technologies, experiences and expertise, accumulated in the course of the implementation of major overseas projects, have been transferred to developing countries, not only enhancing Korea’s national standing, but also cementing partnerships with the related countries for shared growth.”

“(We) will team up with prominent companies to enter overseas agro-industry markets to create diverse social values such shared growth and job creation,” the official said.

KRC in the Forefront of Agro-Industry Development in Developing Countries

Korea has achieved brilliant growth in a short period of time. In the process, the Korean agro-industry has been modernized by carrying out massive integrated agro-industry development and reclamation projects.

KRC has leveled up the quality of lives of the developing country by supporting and exporting technology power and experiences the nation has accumulated while carrying out Korean and overseas projects. Such a job has been done in accordance with its overseas technology engineering project.

Under its overseas technology engineering initiative, KRC has carried out 154 projects in 36 countries in Asia, Africa and Central/South America. Most of the projects are involved in improving the vulnerable agro-industry infrastructure of developing countries to create better farming conditions.

As a representative example, the construction of the Pisa Dam in the province of Isabela, the Philippines, turned out to be a boon to Filipino farmers suffering from difficulties in farming due to a shortage of water.

Irrigation facilities using rich water resources in the area - the Pisa Dam with a reservation capacity of 4.83 million tons and water conduits standing 55 km in total length - has ramped up agro-industry production by about 20 percent and contributed to stabilizing incomes in the region.

KRC has been also building the Karian Dam in Indonesia since 2013, and it is to be dedicated in April 2022.

When the dam is completed, approximately 4 million people, including citizens in western Jakarta and the neighborhood areas, will drink fresh water.

Most of the projects being done by KRC are joined by the private sector. Companies’ joint market entry with a reliable government organization gains better business opportunities, and the KRC ‘s technology transfer and strengthening its capabilities are contributing to realizing social values such as shared growth and job creation.

On top of the implementation of the overseas technology engineering project, the corporation is carrying out Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects. Overseas technology engineering projects are done under the stewardship of foreign governments and international financial institutions whereas ODA projects are financed by Korea, a donor country, responsible for the whole process of each project.

KRC, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), is charged with matters ranging from the establishment of action plans to the designating of project winners, management and evaluation. One of the representative ODA projects is one designed to improve irrigation facilities in Ethiopia.

The improving of water in-take reservoir and pumping stations in the province of Harari has enabled farmers to ensure a stable supply of water for an agricultural purpose even in a dry season.

The project has led to improving production of corn and peanuts, the region’s major grains, by 90 percent and 85 percent per unit area, respectively.

The project of transferring Korea’s excellent agro-industry technologies is evaluated to be a success story, so the local government has asked for a 2nd follow-up project.

Korea, which received assistance from the international community in the past, changed into an assistance donor country, as the nation became a regular member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2010.

The size of Korea’s assistance market has grown at an annual average rate of about 12 percent in the recent five years. The assistance market on the agro-industry sector and the KRC’s development of farming and rural villages in developing have been on the rise.

KRC’s Assistance in Agro-Industry’s Overseas Entry is in Cooperation With MAFRA

The KRC is providing support to Korean companies wanting to enter foreign markets in cooperation with the MAFRA.

The corporation is providing financial support to prominent agricultural and food companies, offering necessary information and helping processing, production, distribution, smart farm and other sectors enter overseas agro-industry markets. Between 2009 and last year, 170.8 billion won has been extended to 39 companies in 14 countries for their overseas market entry and settlement there.

In June, the KRC hosted ‘Korean-Russian Agriculture Cooperation Forum’ and ‘Korean-Uzbekistan Dialogue’ in cooperation with KOTRA and Korea Agricultural Machinery Industry Cooperative to provide Korean agro-industry companies with opportunities to explore overseas markets.

The events were designed to help Korean companies explore foreign markets in conjunction with the government’s “New North Country Policy” initiative.

They produced tangible achievements: the signing of six contracts to export Korean agricultural machinery, raw materials and equipment worth $823,000.

The events are evaluated to produce intangible outcomes: laying groundwork to pave the way for the private sector’s smooth cooperation for investments.

KRC Operates Educational Training Program For Developing Countries

The KRC is sharing Korea’s expertise in the development of farming with global farming officials. International education exchange projects are taking place.

The projects are designed to offer systematic educational training programs in the farming and rural village sectors for developing countries across the globe, and assist Korean and overseas networks.

They are evaluated to have built a reciprocal and cooperative foundation with developing countries, departing from only technology transfers. During the period between 1976 and the second half of this year, about 3,700 officials and technicians around the world have been educated or will be educated in the farming, rural, and water resources fields.

As developing countries’ demand on the KRC’s technology power and experience is on the rise, the Rural Community International Education and Exchange Center (IEEC), a multi-purpose education facility, was opened to meet rising demand and offer more professional systematic education.

The corporation plans to utilize IEEC not only for education, but also as a space of technology exchanges in the farming and rural village fields such as water resources and grain issues related to climate change.

KRC Accelerate Overseas Farming Development
The KRC plans to accelerate the development of overseas farming assistance projects through aggressive exchanges and strengthened reciprocal and cooperative ties with developing country governments and international institutions.

KRC President Kim In-sik toured Vietnam and Myanmar for the first time since he took office in July. He met with local government officials and discussed ways of promoting Korea’s entry into the farming, rural village development technology sectors. Both sides are known to have agreed to continued mutual exchanges.

KRC President Kim discussed the construction of agricultural infrastructure, such as vegetable pilot lots, irrigation and educational facilities, with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, and secured chances to win new project orders.

In September, the KRC made Korea’s leading technology power known during a board meeting of the 3rd World Irrigation Forum and the 70th ICID held in Bali, Indonesia in September and strengthened personnel network with developing countries.

The KRC is discussing investing into massive overseas agricultural development projects in cooperation with the private sector such as a Vietnamese agro-fishery whole-sale market project and smart farm projects in the Middle East.

The corporation is seeking to contribute to the developing of each country’s farming and rural villages in diverse sectors through collaboration with companies and explore new lucrative investment business models.

KRC President Kim said, “Our corporation has built up global recognition overseas for more than 50 years with accumulated experiences and expertise.” KRC will make the conventional overseas businesses substantial and expanded and aggressively push oversea market entry in the downstream industries such as seed, agricultural chemical and raw materials/equipment, he added.