Turkmenistan, South Korea to boost economic cooperation

The governments of Turkmenistan and South Korea have agreed to expand economic ties in the private sector by setting up a special committee on new areas of cooperation, Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported citing the Korean government.

The agreement, reached at the fifth bilateral cooperation meeting in Seoul, calls for the committee made up of both government and private sector representatives to meet and determine future areas of business cooperation, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The move comes after Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Co. and LG International Co. yesterday said that they have "in effect" clinched a combined $4.8 billion worth of deals to improve and build plants in Turkmenistan.

The consortium led by the two companies is expected to sign a $940 million contract with Turkmenistan's state oil company next Monday to modernize Turkmen oil refineries, the Korean companies said.

The deal is designed to construct facilities that remove sulfur from gasoline and diesel produced by the refinery located some 500 kilometers northwest of the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. The project will take 42 months to be completed.

The consortium also plans to sign a framework agreement with Turkmenistan’s state gas company to build a gas-to-liquid plant. The $3.89 billion plant to produce naphtha by processing natural gas will be located near Ashgabat.

The deals are to be signed during Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov’s four-day visit to South Korea, which will start on Saturday.