Gyeonggi Province will take an active part in aiding foreign countries to develop their individual local regions. The Gyeonggi Provincial Government has announced that it has secured a budget of 300 million won from its Overseas Development Fund this year to implement such overseas projects. 

As of now, the provincial government has already reached a decision on three projects for three different countries, while still trying to look for one or two more foreign countries as beneficiaries of its overseas aid program. 

The three overseas projects are as follows: 
1) Construction of a dormitory for elementary schoolchildren and a women’s vocational training center in East Timor (120 million won) 
2) Construction of a culture and welfare center and the implementation of a resident education program In Ulan Bator, Mongolia (50 to 70 million won) 
3) Support for a Korean language program at Volgograd State Pedagogical University in Russia (50 million won) 

Such aid projects will focus on expanding each region’s infrastructure necessary for the development of economy, culture and education rather than on merely giving consumer goods to local residents. To implement these projects, the chief of the Office of Economy & Investment at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government visited Ulan Bator, Mongolia on February 24 to have discussions with officials of the city government and local residents. Chung Chang-sup, First Vice Governor of Gyeonggi for Administrative Affairs, will visit East Timor for three days from March 8 until 10. Vice Governor Chung is scheduled to sign a tripartite agreement on the above project, and have consultations, with officials from the East Timorese Government and the Korean Embassy to East Timor. 

The projects for Mongolia and Russia will reportedly be handled by two private organizations, the Global Civic Sharing and the Gyeonggi Culture Foundation. The project for East Timor will be directly funded by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, but managed by the Korean Embassy to East Timor. 

An official from the Gyeonggi Provincial Government has said that more advanced countries and large conglomerates of Korea are increasingly expanding their overseas aid programs. He added that such programs have positive effects not only from a humanitarian point of view, but in terms of increasing their international competitiveness by enhancing their images. He said that the Gyeonggi Provincial Government has ranked first among nationwide provincial governments in exports of products and inducement of foreign capital through trade promotion and investment inducement efforts. He emphasized that Gyeonggi should now further enhance its brand image as befits a provincial government with the largest population and the highest level of financial self-reliance in the country, while sharing responsibility as a member of the international community. 

The Gyeonggi Provincial Government hopes that such aid programs will largely contribute to enhancing the economic, educational and cultural standards of foreign residents, as well as boosting the image of Korea and Gyeonggi Province in the international community. The provincial government also expect the projects to have positive effects on the promotion of products produced in Gyeonggi Province and the advance of Korean enterprises into foreign countries.