South Korea and Central Asia: practical steps towards encouraging cooperation
South Korea and five Central Asian countries on Monday launched an office in Seoul to facilitate diplomatic, business and people-to-people cooperation through high-level dialogue, exchanges of working-level public officials and cultural festivals, reported the popular English-language financial and economic newspaper “The Korea Herald”. “The Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat is the first joint permanent body between the countries and represents progress they have made since the forum was incepted 10 years ago as a high-level consultative mechanism. The Secretariat of the Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum, established in 2007, is a high-level advisory mechanism”, said the media. The headquarters, located in the premises of the Korean Foundation, all conditions are created for the work of representatives of all five countries of Central Asia. The Secretariat will raise awareness about the countries of Central Asia thorough holding consultations for representatives of South Korean entities interested in establishing business relations with the rapidly developing markets of the region. Since its establishment in 1991, the Korea Foundation has implemented a variety of public diplomacy activities - through culture and arts exchange, support for Korean studies abroad, global networking, and media programs. “With Central Asia being at the geographical center of Eurasia cooperation, the secretariat’s founding means that the Moon Jae-in administration will continue to expand the partnership with the countries in the region”, stressed Kim Gwang-keun, Executive Vice-President of the Korea Foundation and head of the Secretariat of Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum. “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and the five. A multitude of state-run and private Korean businesses including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Engineering have been building power and chemical plants, renovating refining facilities and drilling gas in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan”, added the article. The Central Asian region accounts for about 6% and 3% of the world's gas and crude oil, respectively. Korea and Central Asian nations are expanding cooperation on a number of projects, covering such areas as medicine, tourism, art, culture, youth leadership forums and water management. Almost 70-million population of Central Asia include about half a million of ethnic Koreans, of whom 200,000 live in Uzbekistan.
