The Republic of Korea is a founding member of the EBRD and an important contributor to the Bank's work.
The Republic of Korea has been an EBRD donor since 1993 and has emerged as a strong partner in recent years, contributing about €57.2 million in donor funds.
Republic of Korea and the EBRD: at a glance
€57.2mn donor funds supporting EBRD operations
1% capital share
€1.73bn Korea-EBRD investments
Through its dedicated bilateral fund at EBRD the Republic of Korea supports all EBRD countries of operation. Korea is an important contributor to the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (SIF), the EBRD Water Fund and the Small Business Impact Fund (SBIF).
Korea provides funding for a wide range of activities in various sectors, from municipal and environmental infrastructure and energy efficiency to the financial sector. Korea has been engaged in the digitalisation, development of the knowledge economy, EBRD’s Capital Markets and Local Currency Market Initiative, energy efficiency, climate change and green growth initiatives.
The Republic of Korea is increasingly becoming an important source for FDI into the EBRD region as Korean companies are actively looking at the EBRD region.
The value of joint investment stood at €1.73 billion as of end of October 2022. EBRD finance accounted for €1.0 billion, and Korean investment accounted for €732.8 million.
The joint investment has been in Türkiye, Hungary and Romania. Broken down by industry, joint Korea - EBRD investment has been in the following sectors: sustainable infrastructure, industry, commerce and agribusiness and financial institutions.
Korean banks are also involved in the Trade Facilitation Programme, through which the EBRD guarantees the payment of trade finance instruments issued by banks in the countries where we invest to foreign confirming banks. Through the Programme, the EBRD has supported 404 export and import transactions of Korean companies totalling €502.38 million. Of the 800 foreign confirming banks and bank branches participating in the Programme, 14 are Korean.
In 2021, entities from Korea participated in 7 tenders under our public sector projects and won 3 contracts worth € 3.28 million.
In 2021, Korean consultants were awarded 6 contracts with a total value of over € 560k.
