Korea International Cooperation Agency’s Korea Festival in Sri Lanka

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) held ‘Korea Speech Contest’ on the 4th November (Saturday). Korea Speech Contest, which has marked 10th anniversary for this year, has been held annually since 2008 for Sri Lankan who is interested in learning Korean language.

On 4th November, eight teams including Kelaniya University, Colombo Public Library, Ampara TC, Anuradhapura TC had participated for the Korean Speech Contest (Team event). The participants perform the play with the topic of Korean fairy tales as a team composed by five to ten members. Colombo Public Library team won this competition who had played ‘Kong-Jui and Pat-Jui’. 300 people participated in this event including Koica Sri Lanka Country Director, Chief of Colombo Public Library. 

The Korean Speech Contest (Individual event) will be held at the New Arts Theater, University of Colombo on 18th November 8 a.m. 46 participants had applied to individual event and only 12 of them will be advanced to the finals. Korean Ambassador, H.E. Chang, Won-sam and Minister of Skills development and vocational training, Hon. Chandima Weerakkody will attend this event and give congratulatory remarks. 

In Celebration of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Sri Lanka, the winner of the contest will have a valuable opportunity to participate three months Korean language training program in Korea, organized by the KOICA.

Following the Korean Speech Contest, ‘Korea Festival’, 4th anniversary for this year since 2014, will be held on the same day. Last year, ‘Korea Festival’ had been held at Colombo Public Library and ended in great success as around 700 people had attended. This year, ‘Korea Festival’ will be held with the topic of ‘KORILANKA’ which means harmony between Korea and Sri Lanka, organized a variety of programs such as culture event, Fusion performance. One of famous Korean dishes, Bibimbap (Mixed vegetables and rice with spicy sauce) will be cooked on spot for those who want to try Korean food. All participants can enjoy the Fusion performance including musical and dance performance, hair show as well. 

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is the organization which has dedicated to providing grant aid programs of Korean government. KOICA has supported 128 million dollars to Sri Lanka since 1991 and around 70 volunteers are now doing their volunteer works at Kelaniya University, Colombo Public Library, Matara Municipal Council and etc. as a teacher of Korean Language, Computer Education, Pre-school Education etc. with Sri Lankan people for two years.