South Korea's state-owned trade agency said Friday it will help Myanmar set up its own trade promotion institute as part of efforts to transfer its business know-how in economic development to the reclusive country.

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said it is in talks with the Rangoon government to map out detailed support measures to establish a Myanmar trade agency, tentatively named MYTRA.

KOTRA said it will act as MYTRA's role model, as its Myanmar counterpart supports the county's businesses and exporters to explore overseas markets and carry out promotional activities to attract foreign investment to Myanmar.

The South Korean agency will invite a group of Myanmar officials to South Korea in the coming months for education and training as the first step to support the establishment, it added.

"MYTRA will be launched in Myanmar as early as the end of next year," KOTRA said in a statement.

The move came after Myanmar President Thein Sein visited Seoul last month and asked for support. Ending decades of military dictatorship, the Southeast Asian country has been trying hard to boost its economy and attract more foreign investment on the back of eased international sanctions.

KOTRA was founded in 1962 in the early stage of the country's remarkable economic development, to facilitate international trade, promote foreign investment, offer overseas market information to businesses and bolster trade-investment networks at home and abroad.
 

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Source: Yonhap News (Nov. 23, 2012)