Mr. Chairman,
President of IFAD,
Distinguished Governors, and
Representatives,

It is my pleasure to represent the Republic of Korea at this Twenty-fifth Anniversary Session of the IFAD Governing Council. I am fully confident that under your distinguished leadership this annual meeting will provide a valuable opportunity to renew our commitment to overcome hunger and poverty around the globe.

Over the past quarter century, IFAD has successfully emphasized the critical role of agriculture in overcoming poverty. It has drawn the attention of policy makers to rural areas and the agricultural sector, in both developed and developing countries. IFAD has proved itself to be much more than an organization that simply implements projects.

IFAD has also developed specific and empirical methods of reducing rural poverty through its various projects in different regions and situations. Often it has helped indigenous people strengthen their capacity to operate effectively within their nation’s juridical structures, empowered rural women as powerful agents for change and shown the poor how to manage rural assets.

I take this opportunity to express our compliments and sincere gratitude to the President of IFAD and its secretariat for their work and contribution, which have made all these achievements possible.

Mr. Chairman

The development of scientific technologies, the Green revolution, has enabled humankind to overcome food shortages. These days, thanks to advanced communication and information technologies and the activities of various international organizations, state-of-the-art agricultural technology and knowledge can spread around the world very rapidly. Nothing has been more decisive than technology in our struggle to achieve global food security.

However, we cannot deny the deplorable fact that still today 1.2 billion people, over one fifth of the world’s total population, live in a state of extreme poverty.

Mr. Chairman

We firmly believe that establishing good governance is one of the most fundamental elements for fighting poverty and hunger. Internal instability, conflict and war, all basically the result of a lack of good governance, aggravate the food insecurity of those sectors in which people are most vulnerable.

In this regard, I take this opportunity to report that the Republic of Korea, while enjoying democracy and market economy, overcame poverty and hunger through the successful implementation of the national development plan although we had started from the scratch after the devastating Korean war.

International cooperation and support are also critical to supplement national efforts and to provide an impulse for government endeavours. In the era of globalization, the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty in any country or region must be an obstacle to the harmonious growth and development of the world economy.

In this regard, the international community needs to take a long-term approach to support and engage countries in their fight against hunger so that good governance may be established. More comprehensive plans of action to enhance global food security must be elaborated and implemented immediately.

Finally, I wish to highlight a few points as IFAD prepares to enter on its second quarter century. First, IFAD should have a more flexible and contingent system in managing projects, to reflect the uncertainties and rapid changes some environments are undergoing.

Second, more substantial cooperation with the other two UN agencies in Rome, FAO and WFP, particularly in sharing knowledge and information at both the headquarters and field levels, is required, if all are to reach a higher level of efficiency and effectiveness.

Third, IFAD should strengthen the impact of those projects in favour of the poor and promote the institutions that represent the rural poor. The result of this approach will be to set up good governance in the agricultural and rural areas in the project country.

Mr. Chairman

We believe that poverty is, not only an important obstacle to sustainable socio-economic growth, but one of the root causes of the terrorism which is so tragically rampant today. It is strongly urged that all member states of IFAD fully mobilize international cooperation to combat hunger and poverty, thus making the world of the 21st century more secure and prosperous.

The Republic of Korea has actively participated in international efforts to reduce hunger and poverty and will continue to do so. As one of our commitments, I am pleased to announce that the Republic of Korea will participate in the 6th IFAD replenishment and pledge the same level of contribution as it did for the 5th replenishment.

Thank you.