Nurbek Darvishev, the representative of KGSF-Uzbekistan Alumni Association, sent us a letter. Thankfully he reported details on the KOICA Fellowship Alumni Meeting in Uzbekistan held recently. We are delivering his letter here.

“How are you? I wanted to tell you about the 2015 KOICA Fellowship alumni meeting held in Tashkent.
On Friday (Nov.20), KOICA office in Tashkent held an event at Wyndham Tashkent Hotel, where it gathered all the KOICA 2015 program alumni.  Most of the alumni were actually participants of short-term programs.  KOICA-KAIST program alumni were also invited. So, Saidrasul Nadjimitdinov, Ulugbek Abduganiev, Nam Eugene and I participated at the event. Overall, more than 100 people were invited to the event.

Ambassador of Korea in Uzbekistan opened the event. The deputy minister for foreign economic relations, investments and trade also delivered a gratitude speech for KOICA contribution and role it plays in strengthening Korean-Uzbekistan bilateral relationship. The minister of Social Protection and Labor also delivered a toast for further strengthening of mutually beneficial partnership between Korea and Uzbekistan. Then, Ms. Im Jong Hee, Director of KOICA Uzbekistan office presented KOICA activities and achievements in Uzbekistan. Then there were three more presenters: One from the Uzbektourism agency and another one from the research institute for macroeconomic policy and strategy. They presented about the 4-week workshop in Korea. And I was the third presenter.

We prepared a short presentation about KOICA-KAIST program. I delivered a 10 minute presentation about KAIST, the conditions for study. I also expressed my gratitude to KOICA and KAIST for all the cultural programs and different events as well as company visits and OJT program at KITA. I also highlighted what we achieved at KAIST. I underlined that after the KAIST we are more confident in making decisions, because the knowledge and skills we obtained facilitates us with strong analytical skills and made us become creative. I also mentioned that we improved our technical skills significantly. I also stressed out our Professor JiSoo Kim's recent visit to Uzbekistan to evaluate the program and that he had heard only good words about us and that our employers were happy with our study at KAIST. I concluded the presentation by asking the audience a question what they think key to success is. I provided my own opinion regarding the question and said that key to successful partnership is in common understanding between the parties and also in mutual respect to culture, traditions and history, which is also formed when parties understand and know each other well. In this regard I noted the KOICA's important role in building such a mutually beneficial partnership between Korea and Uzbekistan.

Thank you.

Nurbek”