S.Korea, Bulgaria to strengthen economic cooperation

South Korea and Bulgaria agreed Thursday to strengthen economic cooperation after a summit meeting between President Park Geun-hye and visiting Bulgarian counterpart Rossen Plevneliev.

Plevneliev arrived in Seoul Wednesday for a three-day visit to Seoul at the invitation of President Park to mark the 25th anniversary of establishing bilateral diplomatic relations in 1990.

During the summit, the two leaders agreed to hold the first round of joint economic committee meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria in October to come up with measures to strengthen economic and industrial cooperation.

Park and Plevneliev shared a view that the two countries still have great room for closer economic ties given the supplementary industrial structure between Seoul and Sofia though the current bilateral trade stands merely at 300 million U.S. dollars a year.

They also shared a view that top priority should be placed on cooperation in the private sector for an expansion in bilateral trade and investment, agreeing to make efforts to resume the meeting of the private-sector economic cooperation committee, which was last held in 2004.

The two leaders also agreed to cooperate in science between Bulgaria, which has a strong point in a basic science, and South Korea having an upper hand in an applied science.

Meanwhile, defense chiefs of the two countries plan to hold the first defense-minister talks later in the day since South Korea and Bulgaria set up diplomatic ties in March 1990.

The defense chiefs would discuss cooperation measures in defense and the defense industry. Endi