Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as part of his state visit to South Korea, held talks with President Lee Jae Myung. The presidential press service reports.
The meeting focused on developing and deepening the special strategic partnership between the two countries. At the beginning of the meeting, Mirziyoyev noted that South Korea had become a “reliable friend and one of Uzbekistan’s most important economic partners”.
More than 700 enterprises with Korean capital operate in Uzbekistan, including Samsung, LG, Lotte, BoMI, KIA and others. The total volume of Korean investment in Uzbekistan’s economy has exceeded $8 billion.
Joint projects include the KIA Roodell plant in Jizzakh, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex and the National Children’s Medical Center. With the support of KOICA, the Korea Eximbank and the EDCF fund, projects are being implemented in industry, IT, agriculture and water management, energy, infrastructure, healthcare and education.
Mirziyoyev outlined five priority areas for expanding economic cooperation with Korea: strengthening trade ties, increasing investment, and developing cooperation in critical minerals, transport and infrastructure.
As part of the Uzbek president’s visit, prospective projects worth $12 billion have been prepared. A strategic partnership program with the Korea Eximbank worth $8 billion has also been adopted.
Particular attention was paid to creating an innovation and technology alliance based on South Korea’s advanced technologies and Uzbekistan’s resource and industrial potential. The alliance is expected to focus on IT and cybersecurity, as well as technologies in medicine, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
The meeting also expressed readiness to develop military-technical cooperation. The parties discussed expanding interagency contacts, organizing joint activities and training military specialists.
The leaders noted the first Uzbek-Korean Interregional Forum and agreed to hold the next event in Samarkand.
Education and workforce training were another key topic of the talks. Uzbekistan currently has four branches of South Korean universities and five vocational training centers established with KOICA’s support.
During discussions on cultural exchange, Mirziyoyev highlighted the role of the Korean diaspora in Uzbekistan as a “spiritual bridge” between the two countries. 2027 will be designated the Year of Culture and Mutual Exchanges, with joint cultural and humanitarian events planned as part of the initiative.
The English version of this material was generated with the assistance of AI translation tools and may differ slightly from the original text.
