Korea opens civil servant training program for developing nations

Korea is expanding its soft-power footprint from cultural exports to bureaucratic infrastructure, launching a new initiative to export its state-led civil service training model to developing nations seeking to modernize their public sectors.

The nine-day program, which began Sunday, brings together 12 instructional design and training officials from Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Cambodia.

Organized by the Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI), an arm of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the initiative marks the first time Korea has formalized a "training-of-trainers" curriculum aimed exclusively at foreign public-sector educators.

For decades, Korea’s rapid economic transformation — often termed the Miracle on the Han River — has been studied closely by developing economies.

Increasingly, however, foreign governments are looking past macroeconomic policy to the underlying machinery of the state itself, requesting blueprints of the rigorous training systems that govern Korea’s disciplined bureaucracy.

“This program is designed to unreservedly share ...