At the meeting, Ms. Caitlin Wiesen – UNDP Viet Nam Resident Representative – highly appreciated Mr. Kim Jinoh's contributions during his term in Vietnam and KOICA's role in the KVMAP project, with the aim of bringing a safer living environment for the people in Quang Binh and Dinh Dinh provinces. The method is to build up the capacity of relevant Vietnamese agencies through support and institutional improvement in remediating mine/UXO fields.

Ms. Caitlin Wiesen - Resident Representative of UNDP Vietnam, presented a medal to Mr. Kim Jinoh.

For his part, Mr. Kim Jinoh thanked UNDP in Vietnam for supporting him to fulfil his duties as KOICA Director in Vietnam during the last term in general, and the Vietnam-Korea Cooperation project in overcoming the consequences of mines/UXO after the war in particular.

Also at the meeting with UNDP Viet Nam, in sharing about the KVMAP project, Mr. Kim Jinoh said that the problem of bombs and mines has a great impact on Vietnamese society and needs an integrated response from multiple fields. This is an important issue, so the Government of Vietnam has established a National Committee on the remedy of bombs, mines, and toxic chemicals after the war in Vietnam (Office 701) and the Vietnam National Mine Action Center (VNMAC) to implement the project. The KVMAP project is a project that strengthens the efforts of the Vietnamese Government.

KOICA highly appreciates the positive actions of the Government of Vietnam in recent years to build a comprehensive mechanism to manage and implement mine action programs and projects. The establishment of the 701 Office is an interdisciplinary agency that is responsible for setting up national programs and solutions, and the Vietnam National Mine Action Center is the unit that directly performs the duties of the 701 Office. Hence, this is a testament of the high determination of the government. The Korean Government and KOICA are close friends of Vietnam, pledging to accompany the Vietnamese government in their efforts to ease the pain of war.

Mr. Kim Jinoh - Former Director of KOICA Vietnam.

The KVMAP project is implemented in Quang Binh and Binh Dinh provinces, which are the two provinces most affected by the war and have many landmine / UXO survivors. The 4-component ceramic project with bomb and mine clearance activities on an area of 8,000 ha, aims to help the people of Quang Binh and Binh Dinh to be assured of safe land use. Support for the development and use of a system that collects information on contaminated areas, and safe land to develop a support system to make decisions to systematically clean the contaminated area and expand areas that are considered safe. In addition, support for people and whose families are damaged by mines/UXO. Support the education of raising awareness about the dangers of bombs, mines, especially for young children.

Furthermore, Mr. Kim Jinoh said that in the process of socio-economic development of Vietnam, the identification and expansion of safe lands are the most basic form of public goods. Increasing the supply and maintenance of this type of public goods by the Vietnamese government is one of the core elements for promoting sustainable development.

KOICA also attaches great importance to the sustainability of the project by providing capacity building support to the project implementing units, and the effectiveness in coordinating actions among relevant units from the middle level to local authorities in the field of mine action to make the most out of resources and avoid duplication.