Korea-Africa's economic cooperation and co-development:Toward more integration between Aid, FDI and Development

Abstract

The concept of co-development advocates a reform of the development aid institution toward practices that support economic growth in both donor and recipient countries. Having adopted public aid policies which are entangled with their trade and investment interests, the so-called emerging donor countries which include China, India, Brazil etc., have been mainstreaming the co-development approach. This new prospect has important consequences for the aid donorship institution and for countries like South Korea in which increasing aid flow has not been followed by a subsequent increase of outward FDI, in Africa for example. This paper assesses the implications of the co-development concept for South Koreas public aid policy in Africa regarding its commitment to a multilateral aid agenda and addresses the issue of the liabilities of Korean Firms in the African market, deriving from the weak integrative bond between Korean public Aid and investments toward Africa.