Uzbekistan supports South Korea`s `Eurasia initiative`

Tashkent: Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov expressed support Tuesday for South Korea`s "Eurasia initiative" aimed at boosting economic and trade ties with energy-rich Central Asian nations. "I want to stress that unlike other similar projects this one will bring us good, concrete and fruitful results," Karimov said at a joint news conference with visiting South Korean leader Park Geun-hye in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. South Korea`s initiative calls for building more infrastructure and boosting trade between Eurasian nations to create what could become a large single market rivalling the European Union. Earlier this month Karimov criticised a new economic union to be created by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan with a similar name -- the Eurasian economic union -- as a loss of political independence for the ex-Soviet countries.

Park and Karimov also discussed ways to cooperate in new sectors such as renewable energy, information and communications technology, as well as textiles, officials said. Uzbekistan has opened up its vast mineral resources, oil and gas, uranium and precious metals, as well as car building sectors to South Korean business. More than 180,000 ethnic Koreans live in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan. Park is also scheduled to visit Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.