1. The Republic of Korea government appointed Lee Mi-kyung, a co-head of the Korea Women Parliamentary Network (KWPN), as twelveth President of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on November 28.

2. New KOICA President Lee served as a member of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th National Assembly, a member of the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee of the National Assembly, and a head of the Korean Women’s Association United. She is expected to use her 20 years of experience as a member of the parliament and another 20 years as the head of a civic group in leading advances and changes in KOICA, the ROK’s flagship agency in charge of grant aid projects.

° In particular, President Lee, an expert in education, gender equality, inclusive economic growth, peace and institution, which are essential for the achievement of the international community’s new development goals, namely sustainable development goals, is expected to efficiently run KOICA and seek private-public cooperation, thereby contributing to efforts to strengthen partnership for development cooperation.

3. The KOICA President is selected through an open recruitment system and after a deliberation by the personnel recommendation committee, which is composed of director-general-level officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, as well as civilians. The President’s term is three years and extendable by one year at a time upon the expiration of the term.


* unofficial translation