Myanmar and the Republic of Korea ( ROK) are heading for closer bilateral economic cooperation following the recent signing in Korea of a memorandum of understanding on consultation between the two countries' foreign ministries during Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Maung Myint's five-day trip from March 29 to April 2.
The initiation of the MoU was promptly followed by the two foreign ministries' first bilateral consultation meeting which took place between delegations respectively led by U Maung Myint and his Korean counterpart Lee Yong-joon, according to Saturday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.
The two sides discussed and exchanged views on mutual cooperation in culture, information, human resources development, oil and gas, labor affairs, agricultural, industrial and energy sectors.
ROK has been helping Myanmar in numerous cooperation projects. Meanwhile, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) of ROK planned five more aid projects during this year, which cover the sectors of electricity production, education, building of irrigation and health facilities, and social service training.
KOICA, which is South Korean government's overseas aid agency, had been involved in several technical cooperation projects with Myanmar in a number of areas in recent years.
These projects included a three-year 1.4-million-US-dollar project on development of Myanmar's electric power network, upgrading of the country's medical research capabilities, sending volunteers to Myanmar to serve in the fields of Korean language, computer education, agriculture, sports, health, and information and communication technology (ICT).
According to the KOICA, it funded Myanmar's development programs with 2 million dollars over the past two years covering projects in the sectors of health, agriculture, ICT, electric power and rail transportation.
Moreover, the KOICA has also been helping Myanmar in the implementation of greening the country's dry zone in the central part.In the trade sector, ROK has granted import duty free and quota free on 253 more Myanmar goods items for this year to boost trade with Myanmar, the commerce authorities said.
The 253 goods items include agricultural produces, marines and forestry products, textiles and traditional handicraft products.
ROK's duty exemption on the Myanmar commodities has brought the total number of goods items at HS 6 digit level originated from least-developed countries including Myanmar to 4,074.
Bilateral trade between ROK and Myanmar is expected to grow high following the prior's exemption of tariff on most of the goods imported from ASEAN countries.
Since 2007, 63 percent of items of goods imported by ROK from countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been exempted from tax.
The move represented a step forward of South Korea towards establishing ROK-ASEAN Free Trade Area.
ROK has become the 8th largest trading partner of Myanmar with about 3,000 items of Myanmar goods exported to Korea which covered agricultural produces, marine and forest products, and garments, while Myanmar mainly imported from S. Korea steel, garment, electrical and electronic goods.
ROK will reportedly continue to cut or exempt tariff up to 95 percent of items of goods imported from ASEAN nations including Myanmar, while expecting Myanmar to reduce or exempt tariff on goods imported from South Korea beginning 2018.According to official statistics, Myanmar-ROK bilateral trade amounted to 261.27 million U.S. dollars in 2008 with Myanmar's import from ROK taking 180.7 million dollars, while its export to ROK accounting for 80.57 million dollars. The balance of trade was in favor of ROK with over 100 million dollars.