Civil servants and scholars from developing countries around the world picked education as South Korea’s most appealing development policy, a survey by KDI School of Public Policy and Management found.

Officials from the KDI School conducted the survey on 400 people from 83 developing countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle East and the Americas from May to June.

“The survey was conducted to find out which aspect of Korea’s experience on development was most appealing to people from developing countries. The findings would help maximize the effectiveness of Korea’s knowledge aid for these countries,” officials from KDI School said.

The respondent group -- consisting of civil servants, scholars and experts in development policies from international organizations -- were asked: “If you were the policymaker of your country, which of Korea’s development policy would you like to learn the most?”

The participants were asked to pick out of eight sections related to the country’s development: macroeconomics policy, trade, finance, industry and technology, territorial development-national land development plan, environment, social development, government and law. These were then divided into 45 subcategories. Participants were allowed to pick more than one category.

Of the subcategories, education from the social development section was found to be the most popular subject as it was selected by 11 percent of the respondents. It was particularly popular among respondents from Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Europe. Those from the Americas were most interested in social infrastructure section, encompassing education, welfare and health.

Social infrastructure from national land development plan section was the second most popular category with 10 percent of respondents picking it, followed by international trade from the trade section at 9 percent.

Internal conflict from the government and law sections were the least popular of all subcategories.

In general, government officials showed interest in policies related to the economy. African civil servants were most interested in macroeconomic policy, while officials from the Americas picked international trade. Officials from Asia-Pacific and Middle East respectively found economic development and economic planning most appealing.

But green growth was the No. 1 category among European officials.

Researchers, on the other hand, were more interested in the environment section. Those from Africa put energy on the top of their list, while researchers from the Americas showed high interest in green growth.

The survey was conducted to update the content for K-Developedia(www.kdevelopedia.org), an online database on information related to Korea's development developed by the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in 2012. “It is a global development experience-sharing platform that systematically organized material on knowledge resources regarding Korea's seven decades of development experience,” according to KDI School officials.

K-Developedia provides more than 30,000 resources on Korean development experience with data published by organizations such as the KDI, World Bank and the OECD, and has users from 155 countries around the world.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)