The Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Global City Foundation are running a training program for Paraguayan waste management officials from today through the 22nd. It is the second-year course of the KOICA Global Training Program's "Capacity Building for Solid Waste Management in the Paraguay Metropolitan Area." There are 15 participants. They are made up of Paraguayan public officials, experts and business figures working in waste management.
The project began in 2025 and continues through 2027. The three-year budget is about 800 million won, all of it from national funds. Busan Metropolitan City and the foundation won the task after being selected in a KOICA open competition.
The first year and this year have a different character. Last year's course brought in high-level policymakers and dealt with systems and policy. This year goes down to the field.
Participants will visit the Saenggok landfill and the Haeundae branch office of the Busan Environmental Corporation. They will follow the entire process with their own eyes, from the point where waste is generated through collection, transport, treatment and conversion into resources. In the classroom they will learn about AI-based waste management, waste data analysis, carbon credits and upcycling. The schedule opens with an opening ceremony and country-by-country presentations, followed by expert lectures, facility tours, workshops, discussions and hands-on activities.
The part worth watching is the final item. Busan Metropolitan City and the foundation will help draw up an Action Plan suited to conditions on the ground in Paraguay. At the end of the training, participants will present that plan themselves. It is different in character from cooperation that ships out a single incinerator.
The action plans presented will be shared at the "2nd Circular Economy ODA Busan Forum." The forum was launched last year. It was created to share Busan's resource circulation policy and the results of the KOICA training, exchange policy with partner countries and look for the seeds of follow-up ODA projects.
KOICA Global Training is a program that passes on the development experience and policy management know-how Korea has accumulated to developing countries. Tasks proposed by public institutions, research centers and universities are screened and selected, and costs are fully covered. The focus is on developing human resources and building institutions.
Remarks on the training came from Hong Kyung-ae, head of the Global Exchange Division at the Busan Global City Foundation, and Sim Jae-min, director of the Environment and Water Policy Office at Busan Metropolitan City. Busan Metropolitan City has drawn up plans to carry the results of this training into local projects and follow-up official development assistance cooperation.
Waste treatment conditions in Paraguay's metropolitan area will not change in two weeks. Still, someone who has walked a landfill slope writes a different plan than someone who has only read about it in a report. The day the 15 return home with their own action plans is the 22nd. When those documents land on the table at the Busan Forum, the effectiveness of this project takes on a visible form for the first time.
