Korea, Uzbekistan to expand cooperation for $5.5-billion infrastructure projects

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and visiting Uzbek President Islam Karimov held a summit meeting at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday, and adopted a joint statement suggesting that the two sides will closely cooperate in implementing joint investment projects conducted by Korean companies in Uzbekistan.

With 30 million in population, Uzbekistan is the largest market in Central Asia, which is growing at an annual rate of about 8 percent. The Uzbek government plans to invest 55 billion U.S. dollars to modernize its industry and construct new infrastructure over the next five years. Currently, Korean companies are participating in a number of projects including Surgil gas field development (worth 3.9 billion dollars), conversion of gas into liquid (3.1 billion dollars), Kandym gas field development (2.7 billion dollars), and the modernization of Talimarjan power plant (800 million dollars).

The two countries took the first step to forming a free trade agreement on the day by signing a memorandum of understanding on conduct of joint study on bilateral trade pact. They also exchanged a total of 12 agreements and MOUs, including reciprocal recognition of drivers’ licenses from the two nations. Originally, the bilateral meeting of the two leaders was to take place for 40 minutes, but it lasted for 67 minutes, 27 minutes longer than the original schedule.

President Karimov, who has been serving as Uzbek president since 1990, chose Korea as the first country to visit after his successful re-election in the presidential election in March this year. It is the second time that the two leaders met with each other after President Park’s visit to Uzbekistan in June last year.

egija@donga.com