SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonnap) — South Korea and the Czech Republic have agreed to set up a high-level dialogue channel to discuss ways of stronger cooperation on economic and financial issues, Seoul’s finance ministry said Sunday.
The agreement was made during a meeting between South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and his Czech counterpart, Zbynek Stanjura, held on Friday in Prague, as Choi visited the European nation to accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on his four-day trip.
The director-level economic dialogue channel will be launched for regular policy talks on macroeconomic, finance and fiscal issues, and the inaugural meeting is expected to take place in the first half of 2025, according to the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok (2nd from R) and his Czech counterpart, Zbynek Stanjura (2nd from L), hold a meeting in Prague on Sept. 20, 2024, in this photo provided by Choi’s office. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
On the sidelines of the meeting, the two nations signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) among their state financial institutions, which call for sharing information about major infrastructure projects and providing tailored financial support to companies that seek to take part in the projects and make an investment in the European country.
The two ministries also signed the MOU for the Economic Innovation Partnership Program, where they pledged to deepen policy cooperation on power systems, green energy and various other relevant fields.
“This trip to the Czech Republic will serve as a historic watershed for the bilateral ties and be a tipping point where our economic cooperation will upgrade in quantitative terms,” Choi said.
Yoon’s latest visit put a focus on how to enhance two-way ties on nuclear energy, and the two nations have agreed to collaborate on the entire nuclear energy cycle.
South Korea’s consortium led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power seeks to finalize a contract to build two nuclear reactors in Dukovany, after being selected as the preferred bidder in July.
Bilateral trade reached a record high of US$4.41 billion last year, and the two countries will mark the 35th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala attend a signing ceremony for agreements on nuclear energy industry cooperation between the two countries at Doosan Skoda Power, a nuclear energy contractor in Plzen, an industrial city about 90 kilometers west of Prague, on Sept. 20, 2024. (Yonhap)
graceoh@yna.co.kr
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