S. Korea, Mongolia to seek free trade deal

S. Korea, Mongolia to seek free trade deal. July. 18, 2016 06:56. by 울란바토르=장택동 기자will71@donga.com. South Korea and Mongolia agreed on Sunday to seek an economic partnership agreement (EPA), a kind of free trade agreement, with Mongolia. The two countries will also cooperate to enable Korean companies to participate in 14 Mongolian projects worth 4.49 billion U.S. dollars.

Paying an official visit to Mongolia, President Park Geun-hye had summit talks with Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in Ulaanbaatar on the day, and agreed to start joint research to sign the bilateral EPA. “These efforts will ultimately lead to expansion of trade and investment between the two countries,” Park told reporters after the summit. The South Korean presidential office said EPA is a type of FTA that places more emphasis on industry and investment.

If South Korea signs EPA with Mongolia, which is considered one of the world’s top 10 natural resource-rich nations, a new chapter will open in the endeavor to expand bilateral trade and investment. “The effort will seek to create a new expressway for bilateral trade and cooperation,” Park's chief economic secretary Kang Seok-hoon said. “The agreement will be significant in that even if Korea wished to invest in Mongolian mines and other projects, we have been reluctant to do so due to uncertainty stemming from lack of institutional framework.”

In the wake of the summit talks, the two countries have also agreed that they will exert concerted efforts to enable Korea to participate in infrastructure projects including Fifth Combined Heat and Power Plant development project (1.55 billion dollars) and railway construction linking Ulaanbaatar downtown and New Ulaanbaatar International Airport (500 million dollars).

In addition, South Korean and Mongolia have signed 20 memoranda of understanding including 16 in the economic field. The two nations have also agreed that they will jointly conduct a project to manage a 30 sq. kilometer forest that has been created in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. They have also agreed that Korea will provide Mongolian patients who took medical treatment in Korea with post-treatment service through telemedicine system.

“President Park brought so many gifts with her visit,” the Mongolian president said. “I am pleased to conclude a number of cooperative agreements, which the both nations reached during my visit to Korea two months ago.”