The Bureaucratic Process for Introduction of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Republic of Korea

Abstract

This paper examines the following questions: how the ROK government formulates its request for Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA), and how the Japanese government makes ODA decisions with respect to the ROK. It will focus mainly on the bureaucratic decision-making process of the two governments: the process by which a project is selected, and the criteria employed in that process. The unit of analysis of this paper is a project which is funded by Japanese ODA, as an output of organizations. The basic scheme of decision-making in the introduction of Japanese ODA to developing countries consists of three stages. First, the would-be recipient country prepares its annual plan for using Japanese ODA, and presents it to the Japanese government. Next, the Japanese government reviews the request and decides whether or not to provide its ODA to the projects. Third, after the Japanese government informs the recipient government that it has decided to fund a project, the recipient government selects a supplier of goods and necessary services to begin implementation of the project. This paper concerns mainly with the first and the second stage. This paper concludes that the Japanese government always tries to apply the formal pattern of (1) recipient's request→ (2) Japanese decision→ (3) implementation, to all recipient countries regardless of the time frame and of the nature of the projects.