The two sides discussed the current state and opportunities for scaling up cooperation between the countries of Central Asia and the Republic of Korea, along with ways to broaden expert engagement between IICA and KDI.

Much of the conversation centred on industrial cooperation, the extraction and processing of critical minerals, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, and human capital development.

Opening the meeting, Javlon Vakhabov pointed to the steady development of relations between the countries of Central Asia and the Republic of Korea and the consistent broadening of their practical agenda.

In his view, the upcoming first “Central Asia - Korea” summit in Seoul will be a logical continuation of this process, setting out further priorities for engagement and giving additional impetus to concrete joint projects.

For his part, Hokyung Bang underscored the growing role of the countries of Central Asia and the considerable potential for further developing their relations with the Republic of Korea.

In this context, he spoke about Seoul’s new approaches to international development cooperation and the work of the Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), stressing the value of exchanging experience and expertise in identifying promising areas of engagement.

Following the meeting, both sides confirmed their interest in advancing expert and analytical engagement between IICA and KDI, including through joint research.

The Korea Development Institute is the Republic of Korea’s leading state analytical institution in the field of economic policy and the operator of the Knowledge Sharing Program, which has been running since 2004.