Finance ministry signs four MOUs to expand Central Asia economic ties

The finance ministry announced the signing of four memorandums of understanding to deepen economic cooperation with Central Asian nations following the inaugural Korea-Central Asia Summit. The deals focus on securing critical mineral supply chains, expanding infrastructure exports and strengthening financial links with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

A key component is a platform for cooperating on the processing, manufacturing and supply of critical minerals between Korea and Uzbekistan. Signed during a business roundtable on Sept. 15, the agreement involves the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Uzbek Reconstruction and Development Fund, state-owned enterprise TMK and the Asian Development Bank. The framework aims to move beyond simple raw material imports by jointly developing high value-added processing projects.

In the infrastructure sector, the ministry will launch a feasibility study to introduce eight additional high-speed train sets comprising 56 cars to Uzbekistan, following the operation of Korean trains on the Tashkent-Samarkand route. A separate study will also begin for establishing a 'Biome Center' for genome analysis and cell storage within a pharmaceutical cluster in Tashkent.

Financial cooperation expands as the Export-Import Bank of Korea provides a relending limit to ForteBank, one of Kazakhstan's five largest commercial banks. The facility offers liquidity to local importers of Korean products to promote exports of machinery, consumer goods and beauty items. The ministry also signed a pact to build a system for strategically discovering joint projects in six national strategic industries including artificial intelligence and smart cities.