The Korea Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Kim Sungsoo has urged the Ghanaians who study abroad to channel their skills, knowledge and experiences acquired towards the development of Ghana.
He said it was critical for the students to obtain the requisite knowledge and best practices to contribute to government’s Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.
Ambassador Sungoo was speaking at a pre-departure orientation for 30 brilliant Ghanaian students who won the 2019-2021 Master’s scholarship to study in the Republic of South Korea.
The recipients won the scholarship through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) scholarships to study diverse programmes in 20 different universities in South Korea.
The Korean envoy asked the beneficiaries to study hard and lift the flag of Ghana high.
He said Ghana and Korea has a long standing relations dating back to more than four decades and that the two countries have been working to deepen socio-economic development.
Ambassador Sungsoo told the students that the two countries share a lot in common, adding that although Korea had suffered extreme poverty due to colonisation and wars, the country was able to transform from a war-torn, poor country to a leading market economy.
The lessons learned from the challenges, he noted, were those that Korea loved to share with partners including Ghana.
He told the beneficiaries that they may go through challenges but said he was hopeful they could overcome them and complete their programmes.
In her remarks, Ms Jeongyi Choi, Deputy Country Director, KOICA, said, the scholarship is under Capacity Improvement and Advancement Tomorrow (CIAT) and meant to develop individuals and institutions of partner countries.
She said a total of 120 Ghanaian government officials had benefited from the programme between 2014 and 2018.
This year, she noted that KOICA Ghana Office received 172 applications and awarded 30 scholarships to the most qualified ones.
While congratulating the recipients for being awarded scholarships to study in South Korea, she urged them to respect the laws of Korea and become good ambassadors.
In an interview with the Ghanaian Times, Mr Anthony Yenbabil Zebre, one of the recipients, an agriculture extension officer with Tempane District in the Upper East Region, said upon his return to Ghana, he would put the knowledge he acquired to good use and support agricultural development in his district.
Mr Zebre who would pursue a one and half year masters programme in engineering at Hanyong University said appropriate use of farm machinery enables farmers to produce more yield.
Since its inception in 1997, the scholarship programme had produced more than 3,400 graduates from 80 different countries.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
