KITA (Chairman: Jin Sik Yoon) hosted "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable" and "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum" on Tuesday, 15 September by taking the 1st Korea - Central Asia Summit Meeting as an opportunity. The President of Kazakhstan and the President of Turkmenistan, who visited Korea to attend the Korea - Central Asia Summit Meeting, respectively attended the "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable" and the "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum" in person and showed their commitment to working with Korea for economic cooperation.
"Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable" was held as a morning meeting at Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno District, Seoul. This meeting was co-organised by KITA and Samruk-Kazyna, a sovereign wealth fund and joint stock company in Kazakhstan. The Roundtable was attended by approximately 230 people, including Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan, Seong Sook Han, the Korean Prime Minister, Jin Sik Yoon, the Chairman of KITA, Nurlan Zhakupov, the Chairperson of Samruk-Kazyna, government officials and business representatives from both Korea and Kazakhstan.
Ahead of the Roundtable, President Tokayev and Prime Minister Han had a separate meeting on ways to boost bilateral economic cooperation and received a briefing on Alatau Smart City Project. They discussed on possible avenues of expanding the scope of cooperatio to future and emerging industries, including smart cities, urban air mobility (UAM), key minerals, finance, nurturing science technology and AI professionals.
After finishing the Roundtable with Kazakhstan, "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum" was subsequently held in the afternoon at Grand Lotte Hotel Seoul the same day. This forum was co-organised by KITA and the Embassy of Turkmenistan and was attended by approximately 180 people, including the Turkmenian President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the Korean Prime Minister Seong Sook Han, KITA Chairman Jin Sik Yoon, relevant Korean government officials and business representatives.
Key agendas discussed during the forum include topics relevant to leveraging Turkmenistan's abundant natural gas reserves, such as boosting cooperation in energy and plant sectors and expanding this scope of cooperation to shipbuilding and transportation sectors by improving Turkmenian transportation and logistics infrastructures.
At both "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable" and "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum", KITA Chairman stressed, "Korea and the Central Asian region are important economic partners that should seek growth based on mutual trust" and added, "Despite changing external environment, we are committed to extending support to keep bilateral cooperation and projects between businesses move forward without disruption."
The history of propelling cooperation between KITA and the Central Asian region dates back to 2019. KITA launched "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Council" that year and in 2021, KITA launched "Korea - Kazakhstan Economic Cooperation Council" with Samruk-Kazyna. KITA has been at the forefront of establishing other channels of economic cooperation at the private level and plans to offer ongoing suppport for collaboration and new projects between businesses from Korea, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
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Photo 1: Key attendees are congratulating the opening of "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable."
(From left, are MP Yeong Gil Song from the Democratic Party, Gam Chan Gang, the Head of the Office of International Trade and Investment at MOTIR, Jin Sik Yoon, the Chairman of KITA, Seong Sook Han , the Prime Minister of Korea, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan and Nurlan Zhakupov, the Chairperson of Samruk-Kazyna.)
Photo 2: KITA Chairman Jin Sik Yoon is delivering his welcome remarks at "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable."
Photo 3: "Korea - Kazakhstan Business Roundtable" was held on 15 September at Four Seasons Hotel in Downtown Seoul.
Photo 4: "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum" was held on 15 September at The Grand Lotte Hotel Seoul and Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan is posing for a photograph with Seong Sook Han, the Prime Minister of Korea and Jin Sik Yoon, the Chairman of KITA after receiving a plaque of appreciation.
Photo 5: KITA Chairman Jin Sik Yoon is delivering his welcome remarks at "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum."
Photo 6: KITA Chairman Jin Sik Yoon is delivering his welcome remarks at "Korea - Turkmenistan Business Forum" with Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan and Seong Sook Han, the Prime Minister of Korea on stage.