The Korea Herald

지나쌤

KOICA builds power plant in Haiti, technical college in Nepal

By Shin Hyon-hee

Published : July 23, 2012 - 20:32

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The Korea International Cooperation Agency said Monday it has completed a power plant in Haiti as part of its efforts to help rebuild the disaster-stricken country.

The state-run aid agency has funneled $3 million into the project over the last two years in the sea town of Leogane, some 40 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince and the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that swept through the country in February 2010.

The facility is expected to supply about 4,000 households and entails a mobile electricity generator capable of churning out 2,100 kilowatts, KOICA said in a statement. 
Korea International Cooperation Agency President Park Dae-won (left) and Seoul’s Ambassador to Nepal Kim Il-doo (second from right) put up a signboard at a ceremony to launch a technical college in Tamnagar, about 8 kilometers southeast of Katmandu, Saturday. (KOICA) Korea International Cooperation Agency President Park Dae-won (left) and Seoul’s Ambassador to Nepal Kim Il-doo (second from right) put up a signboard at a ceremony to launch a technical college in Tamnagar, about 8 kilometers southeast of Katmandu, Saturday. (KOICA)

The agency said it is also taking part in a program to renovate the power supply system at an industrial complex in the Haitian capital.

In a separate development, KOICA said it opened a technical college in Nepal on Saturday.

It injected $5.68 million for the past four years for the school, which can accommodate about 270 students every year in four departments ― automobile, electricity, electronics and mechanical engineering.

Around 400,000 Nepaleses enter the labor market each year. But the South Asian nation’s long-running jobs crunch and lack of technologies have prompted many of them to land a low-wage, simple task position in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“We hope the college will contribute to the Nepalese government’s policy for employment-driven economic growth,” Park Dae-won, KOICA’s president, told a ceremony in Tamnagar on the outskirt of Katmandu.

On the sidelines of the event, Park paid a courtesy visit to Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav and discussed ways to boost development cooperation between the two countries, KOICA added.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)