1. The fourth meeting of the Republic of Korea-Belarus joint committee on economy, science and technology took place in Minsk on May 25, with Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Tae-ho of the ROK and Deputy Foreign Minister Valentin Rybakov of Belarus leading their respective delegations.

2. The first Joint Committee meeting in four years since the one held in 2012 served as an opportunity to review major issues concerning bilateral cooperation in economy, science and technology and played a role in making the inter-governmental dialogue a regular event between the two countries. In addition, it is seen to have contributed to efforts to seek ways to boost trade and investment with Belarus in the wake of the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in January 2015 as well as specific ways to work together in key future industries, including the e-trade and e-government systems, new energy and pharmaceuticals.

3. In their Joint Committee meeting, the two sides noted with appreciation vibrant advances in bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, including the bilateral trade volume of 100 million US dollars in 2013; the opening of an office of the Korean Trade–Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Minsk in March 2014; and the first case of investment in Belarus by a Korean company in June 2014. They agreed to continuously seek increased exchanges and meetings between enterprises and other relevant organizations of the two countries.

4. The two sides took note of the fact that the ROK and Belarus, countries with advanced information and communications technology (ICT) and relevant workforce, have steadily worked together in the field, including by holding their first ICT business forum in September 2014 and opening an information access center. They agreed to step up cooperation on ICT and softwares, including by opening a center for the ROK-Belarus IT cooperation in early 2017.

5. The two countries agreed on the need to steadily broaden the scope of their substantive cooperation by building upon the past progress in the area. To that end, they agreed to seek concrete cooperation in new energy industries, such as for improved energy efficiency under the new climate regime, and on pharmaceuticals.


* unofficial translation