February 19, 2002
Rome, Italy
Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, and Distinguished Governors!

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Korea, I am very pleased to address the 25th Session of the IFAD's Governing Council.

Mr. Chairman!

First I would like to congratulate you on your election as Chairman. I look forward to valuable results under your eminent leadership during the Session.

I also would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the IFAD president and all staff members. You have successfully carried out poverty and hunger eradication activities all around the world.

However, despite our efforts to eradicate hunger, 800 million people are still suffering from malnutrition. Moreover, agricultural and rural development remains stagnant.

A number of reasons could be enumerated to explain rural hunger and poverty, including regional conflicts, political unstabilities, irrational land systems, and desertification. Such complexity makes it more difficult to find solutions.

Besides, our objective to reduce the number of the poor is significantly challenged by decreasing domestic and foreign investment in agriculture and by deteriorating conditions of agricultural resources such as land and water.

To halve the number of hungry people by 2015, more fundamental measures and efforts should be called for immediately.

We first need to analyze and categorize the current hunger and poverty situations and pursue diverse and effective approaches accordingly. Priorities should be given to the programmes that can maximize the cooperation between donors, programme organizers and beneficiaries.

In addition, various cost-saving projects to improve food security should be co-developed and more broadly implemented through the establishment of a cooperative system at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

I believe that such a cooperative system will contribute not only to more effective rural development, but also to further voluntary participation and information exchange from the preparation stage of development support programmes to the final stage.

We should also benchmark the cases that have succeeded in agricultural and rural development. This will enable us to obtain valuable lessons and reduce trials and errors.
Lastly, I would like to emphasize that each country should show its strong will and motivation to eliminate hunger and poverty at the community and national levels.

Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Governors!

As an exemplary country that has overcome hunger and poverty within a relatively short period, the Republic of Korea will continue to participate actively in the international rural development efforts based on its past experience and accumulated know-how.

I would like to end my remarks with a sincere hope that this 25th Session of Governing Council will make a great contribution to world hunger and poverty alleviation.

Thank you.