Korean envoy greets KOICA Scholarship recipients at the embassy

Korean Envoy Santhush Woonjin JEONG greeted the Sri Lankan public sector officials who were selected for the KOICA-AKOFE scholarship programme offered by the Korean government at the Korean Embassy together with the KOICA Country Director Ms. Kim Myung Jin, President of AKOFE Roshan Serasinghe and Vice-President of AKOFE Eng. Kavindra Jayawardena. This year, five Sri Lankan officials were offered scholarships to pursue their higher studies in Korea under the KOICA training and scholarship programme.

Since its foundation in 1991, KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) has offered the training and scholarship programmes to Sri Lankan Government officials and personnel every year by sharing Korea’s capacity building and human resources development experiences. At present, the Alumni Association of KOICA Fellows (AKOFE) has 826 members who received scholarships and trainings. So far, more than 2000 Sri Lankan officials and personnel had been invited to Korea to pursue their post-graduate studies in diverse fields through this programme.

Firstly, Korean Ambassador Santhush offered his congratulations to all the scholarship recipients this year for being selected as fellows from a highly competitive programme held worldwide. He said ‘It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome you all to the Korean Embassy. I am confident that your capabilities and commitment to receive this scholarship will assist you in successfully completing the fellowship in Korea. Among you, there are highly skilled Government officials from various fields, such as Engineering, Finance, Tax Policy, Gender and development. This fellowship provides the opportunity to add value to your field of expertise with the knowledge and experience you receive from Korea. Your role as “civilian diplomats” is very important to foster meaningful relations between Korea and Sri Lanka. Korea has a rich stock of good practices and lessons learned in developing your respective fields of studies, such as tax policies, engineering and gender development policies. As such, the Korean government intends to share the know-how with Sri Lanka so that the knowledge gained from the fellowship will not only help you, but also the national capacity in developing sustainable policies of Sri Lanka. I wish you all the best for your future endeavours.’

The Korean Envoy appreciated KOICA for the immeasurable ODA support and aid provided to uplift the education sector of Sri Lanka. He also highly commended the performances and activities of AKOFE and from now on the Korean Embassy hopes to strengthen the relations with AKOFE and will actively participate in collaborative events in the future.

The scholarship recipients expressed their gratitude to the Korean government for the wonderful opportunity and stated that they are very happy to study in Korea. They also said that they can contribute greatly to Korea-Sri Lanka relations by the knowledge received by this fellowship. President of AKOFE Roshan Serasinghe and Vice-President of AKOFE Eng. Kavindra Jayawardena thanked the Korean Envoy for this opportunity and hoped to closely work in cooperation with the Korean Embassy.

The Korean government is keen to promote cultural and education cooperation with Sri Lanka. Reflecting on the long-standing trajectory of Korea-Sri Lanka relations, Korean Envoy also highlighted the important milestone of the adoption of Korean language to advanced level classes in Sri Lanka from 2021. Sri Lankan students can sit for Korean language at the University entrance examination from next year. The firm resolve and many efforts of the Education Ministry and the Korean Embassy provided an opportunity for Sri Lankan students to engage in Korean language education. This will open new visions for Sri Lankan youth to study in Korea and access the rich and vibrant Korean culture. In addition, Ambassador Santhush also appreciated contribution of KOICA and AKOFE to conduct community development and capacity building programmes nationwide.

The Scholarship recipients for 2022 Arjuna Rathnayake, Gayashan Kulathunga, Ms. Irangi Jayarukshi Silva, Ms. Iresha Udayangani and Ms. Priyanthika Dilrukshi along with KOICA Country Director Ms. Kim Myung Jin, First Secretary of Embassy, Ms. Lim Miyeon, President of AKOFE Roshan Serasinghe and Vice-President of AKOFE Eng. Kavindra Jayawardena participated in the meeting.