1. Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (ROK), together with Minister of Economy Sanjar Mukanbetov of the Kyrgyz Republic, held the 3^rd Meeting of the ROK-Kyrgyz Republic Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation in Seoul, on Friday, October 4.

2. At the Commission, which came in three months after Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon’s first visit to Kyrgyz Republic since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries this July, the two sides discussed the implementation of the follow-up measures agreed upon at the ROK-Kyrgyz Republic Prime Ministerial Meeting as well as ways to enhance substantive cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, development cooperation, agriculture, education, e-government and health and medical care.

○ (Trade and investment) The two sides agreed to reinvigorate exchanges in private economic sector and diversify trade items in order to resolve trade imbalance. The ROK side requested that the government of the Kyrgyz Republic make efforts to create business-friendly environment in order to increase investment by the ROK companies.

○ (Development cooperation) The two sides, taking note of the steady increase in development cooperation in essential areas that help the daily lives of people, agreed to work together to make certain achievements through faithful implementation of development cooperation projects currently underway such as regional development and capacity-building in firefighting and rescue operations.

○ (Agriculture) During the Commission, the two sides agreed to work together in species improvement and pest control by pushing ahead with the establishment of the Korea Program on International Agriculture (KOPIA) in Kyrgyz Republic.

○ (Education) Both sides hailed a rising interest in Korean language in Kyrgyz Republic as demonstrated by opening a new degree program of Korean language major at the Kyrgyz National University (in September), and agreed to increase exchanges between students of the two countries by implementing the ROK government’s Global Korea Scholarship program.

○ (E-government) Declaring 2019 as the year of regional development and digitalization, the Kyrgyz side hoped to share e-government building experiences with the ROK that has world’s leading competitiveness. In addition, the two sides agreed to explore ways for e-government cooperation that could contribute to improving the administrative efficiency and transparency of the government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

○ (Health and medical care) The two sides agreed to carry out substantive cooperation such as expanding medical personnel exchanges on the basis of cooperative measures on health and medical care discussed at the Prime Ministerial Meeting this July.

3. The two sides commended that the ROK-Central Asia Cooperation Forum contributes to advancing not only multilateral cooperation between the ROK and Central Asian countries, but also bilateral cooperative relations between the ROK and Kyrgyz Republic. Furthermore, the two sides agreed to make joint efforts to successfully hold the 12^th ROK-Central Asia Cooperation Forum set to take place in the Republic of Kazakhstan in October this year.

4. The Commission is seen to have served as an opportunity to review the follow-up measures to the ROK Prime Minister’s visit to Kyrgyz Republic this July, and to have in-depth discussions on future-oriented ways for cooperation for mutually prosperous development.