According to Newsis,
[Sejong=Newsis] Reporter Lee Soo-jung = South Korea and five Central Asian nations held their first multilateral economic gathering since establishing diplomatic relations, signing 19 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) across critical minerals, smart cities, and infrastructure. Linked export consultations yielded contracts totaling USD 14 million (approx. KRW 18.62 billion).
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) announced that they hosted the '1st Korea-Central Asia Business Summit' at the Westin Josun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 16th.
Over 520 attendees participated in the event, including President Lee Jae-myung, leaders of five Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—government officials, and business leaders.
From South Korea, approximately 170 representatives attended, including KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won, POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa, LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun, Daewoo E&C Chairman Jung Won-ju, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dong, and Hyundai Motor President Seo Gang-hyun.
From Central Asia, around 350 delegates participated, including representatives from sovereign wealth funds and major corporations.
Under the theme 'Korea-Central Asia Future Cooperation for Growth and Innovation,' the summit addressed business collaboration across three primary sectors: expanding trade and investment, strengthening critical minerals, energy, and supply chain cooperation, and accelerating industrial plants, infrastructure, and logistics.
Discussions focused on linking Central Asia's mineral and energy resources with the technical capabilities of domestic enterprises while expanding Korean corporate participation in local infrastructure projects such as power plants, industrial facilities, airports, and railways.
The KCCI and representative economic organizations from the five Central Asian nations adopted the 'Business Summit Joint Declaration,' agreeing to expand inter-firm cooperation across the three core areas.
During the signing ceremony preceding the summit, a total of 19 business cooperation MOUs were executed across critical minerals and energy, plant infrastructure, and trade and investment.
The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology signed an MOU for rare metal industrial cooperation with Kazakhstan's National Center on Complex Processing of Mineral Raw Materials, aiming to develop supply chain collaboration models connecting resource and production bases with technology and investment capabilities.
Hyundai Motor signed a 'Physical AI-Based Smart City Cooperation MOU' with Kazakhstan's Caspian Group and Kaspi, establishing cooperation to introduce future mobility and smart solutions to the ongoing Alatau Smart City project in Kazakhstan.
The Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND) initiated cooperation with Uzbekistan's Agency for Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry to build a smart bio cluster, while the Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTC) signed a mutual recognition MOU for Halal certification with Kyrgyzstan's Halal Industry Development Center.
At the linked 'Korea-Central Asia Business Partnership' event, 33 Central Asian buyers, contracting authorities, and suppliers met with over 90 domestic enterprises, conducting around 200 export consultation sessions in infrastructure, energy, consumer goods, and distribution.
On-site transactions yielded 16 export contracts totaling USD 14 million (approx. KRW 18.62 billion), including a USD 3 million (approx. KRW 3.99 billion) product supply agreement between Artbox and Casia Imports.
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Source Text
Source: Newsis (September 16, 2026)
** This article was translated from Korean.