Successful Completion of the 7th KRIHS – IDB  Urban Development Academy

Date: February 6, 2024

Venue: KRIHS, Sejong, Korea

GDPC successfully completed the KRIHS Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Urban Development Academy (KIUDA) online courses held jointly with the IDB’s Housing and Urban Development Department. Following the Spanish course held in May of last year, Portuguese and English courses were run simultaneously for about 10 weeks, starting in October 2023, thus completing training courses encompassing all the official Latin American languages.

The two language courses completed this time were part of the 7th KIUDA Urban Regeneration Based on Land Readjustment program. Twenty-one civil servants from three Caribbean countries (Suriname, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago) participated in the English course, and 23 Brazilian civil servants participated in the Portuguese course.

At the English course final presentation held on January 31, two central government agencies from Barbados (the Housing Development Corporation and the Ministry of Planning and Development) and one central government agency from Suriname (the Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing) presented project proposals. In common, the essence of these proposals was urban development projects, and projects to expand the infrastructure and auxiliary facilities were proposed. Panels from the KRIHS and the IDB evaluated the proposals and suggested directions for the projects. Choi Myung Shik, Research Fellow of the Land Policy Research Center at KRIHS, requested concretization of the project techniques and predicted that advisory cooperation regarding the enactment of laws and ordinances would be possible for Caribbean countries. Experts from the IDB local regional office mentioned the review of follow-up support for technical cooperation projects already being carried out in Barbados and other countries and suggested using items presented at this event.

At the Portuguese language course final presentation on February 1, three state capital cities (Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Vitoria) presented two Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects (a TOD project based on the Gentileza complex terminal plan and a TOD project around the Minas shopping center and station) and one land reorganization project (near the Camburi Canal). The participants from Brazil’s state capital cities made full use of their project experience with the IDB to present concrete project proposals, and the IDB judged that there was great potential for the project proposals to develop into technology cooperation projects. Therefore, the IDB added one TOD project and one other project and is establishing a plan to undertake a cooperation project review.

The KRIHS has produced and implemented online training to minimize the gap in faceto-face competency development projects during the last coronavirus pandemic and is continuously having discussions with the IDB to implement the project demands identified at this final presentation as a technical cooperation project to derive project outcomes equivalent to those from face-to-face training. In particular, it suggests the possibility for the KRIHS to further expand its partnership with Central and South American countries in areas of cooperation such as consultation regarding the enactment of laws and ordinances, and is planning to gather feedback from the KRIHS–IDB joint capacitybuilding project through the foregoing measures.