The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will offer scholarships for mid-career public officials from Central America to pursue postgraduate studies in Korea.  Under the name of the KOREA-IDB SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, this scholarship program will be operational from the 2012 Academic year.

The scholarship program is designed to strengthen the finance ministries and central banks of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, with a view of maintaining and raising the standards of their macroeconomic management. It also aspires to assist in developing an analogous technical foundation in those countries and hence a favourable climate to the harmonization of macroeconomic policies at the sub-regional level. The program targets mid-career public sector officials in the region who have attained a certain degree of expertise and experience in public administration in their respective countries.

The project will be coordinated by the Council of Treasury Secretaries and Finance Ministers of Central American Countries (COSEFIN) and the Central American Monetary Council (CMCA), operating at two widely recognised academic institutions in Korea. Each country will be required to send two qualified mid–career officials, one from the Central Bank and one from the Ministry of Finance to pursue their Master’s program at the KDI School and the Seoul National University, Graduate School and International Studies respectively.

The program is expected to enrich the sub-region by providing a pool of specialists who will be able coordinate, negotiate and monitor various economic activities and achievements within the region. Furthermore, the program aims to help standardize technical basis of macroeconomic policies in accordance with the highest international standards, thereby enhancing policy coordination.

Many countries embark on economic integration within their respective regions to improve their competitiveness in the ongoing context of globalisation. Based on this reality, there is no doubt that the role of program beneficiaries, upon their graduation, will be imperative in orchestrating macroeconomic policies in the sub-region.

By Julius John LWENJE (2011, MPP, Tanzania)