V4 + Korea Jointly Assist Fight Against the Pandemic in Georgia and Ukraine
The International Visegrad Fund successfully launched the second edition of the extraordinary V4 East Solidarity Program with a generous financial contribution from the government of the Republic of Korea and with the active cooperation of the V4 countries’ embassies in the Eastern Partnership region. The main goal of this second edition of the support is providing humanitarian assistance to two projects in Georgia and Ukraine aimed at curbing the COVID-19 pandemic and easing its social and economic consequences.
The Korean contribution will be used for two projects aiming at improving the capacities of health care systems in Georgia and Ukraine. The first project channels €100,000 to supply urgent medical and IT equipment, as well as staff training in Georgia. The second project provides urgent medical assistance to hospitals in Ukraine, with its total worth exceeding €80,000.
The Korean support of projects co-financed by the Visegrad Fund is a tangible example of the long-term cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the Visegrad Group. With the overall support of €750,000 to date, the Republic of Korea has become the Fund’s second biggest external donor, after the Netherlands, having co-funded projects in the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkan regions. Previous grants co-financed by the Republic of Korea contributed to the development of civil society and towards educational projects in the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership (EaP) regions that remain priority targets for the Visegrad Fund support.
“The Visegrad Fund is very grateful for the ongoing support of our Korean partners and for the flexibility with which they were able to join our recent COVID-related humanitarian efforts in the EaP region. We hope that the delivered help will make a difference and that we can continue cooperating also in the future,” said Amb. Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi, Executive Director of the Fund.
The extraordinary V4 East Solidarity Program was launched in April 2020 by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The aim of the support is to financially contribute to alleviating social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first batch of this predominantly humanitarian support amounting to €250,000 was awarded in 2020 to 13 projects (3 in Armenia, 2 in Azerbaijan, 1 in Belarus, Georgia and Moldova each and 5 in Ukraine). With the Korean support, the overall volume of aid has exceeded €430,000.