KOICA Donates 58.49 Million KRW from Returned Salaries and Bonuses to Support COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Salary and Bonus Returns from 5 Executives Over 4 Months
Part of Sharing COVID-19 Hardships

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) announced on the 24th that it donated 58.49 million KRW, collected from the salaries and performance bonuses returned by its executives as a measure to share the pain caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) ahead of Chuseok, to the Korea Social Value Solidarity Fund.

The donation ceremony held that morning at KOICA headquarters in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do was conducted in a simplified manner considering social distancing, with the attendance of all executives including KOICA Chairperson Lee Mi-kyung, Director Song Jin-ho of the Social Value Management Headquarters, Director Park Jae-shin of the Business Strategy and Asia Headquarters, Director Baek Sook-hee of the Africa, Middle East and Latin America Headquarters, Director Song Woong-yeop of the Global Partnership Headquarters, as well as Song Kyung-yong, Chairman of the Korea Social Value Solidarity Fund, which received the donation.

All five executives, including Chairperson Lee Mi-kyung, prepared the donation of 58.49 million KRW as part of their participation in the decision by the President and senior public officials at the ministerial level or higher to return 30% of their salaries for four months.

The amount donated by KOICA on this day exceeded 2.7 times the government’s recommended amount. Previously, the government recommended that all executives of public institutions voluntarily return at least 10% of their performance bonuses as a measure to share the pain of the COVID-19 crisis.

The donation will be used as emergency operating funds to support social enterprises and cooperatives facing existential crises due to COVID-19, through the wage solidarity method of the ‘Joint Action to Overcome the Crisis Together,’ led by the Korea Social Value Solidarity Fund. Additionally, employees will receive their performance bonuses in Onnuri gift certificates, differentiated by rank up to a maximum of 100,000 KRW, after labor-management consultations, to help local small business owners.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and support livelihood stabilization during Chuseok, KOICA plans to purchase masks worth approximately 20 million KRW from the Sewing Workers’ Mutual Aid Association as soon as possible to support securing sales channels for small-scale sewing workers struggling due to COVID-19.