The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced that they held the '2026 1st Korea-Central Asia Business Summit' at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul on the 16th and explored new opportunities for cooperation for future growth and innovation.
This event, held on the occasion of the first-ever Korea-Central Asia Summit, was attended by leaders of six countries, including President Lee Jae-myung, Kazakhstan President Kassim-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyzstan President Sadir Jafarov, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimukhamedov, and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as political and business figures. About 520 people attended.
In Korea, government, major corporations, and public institutions figures attended, including Chairman Choi Tae-won of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jeong-kwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, POSCO Group Chairman In-hwa In-hwa, LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dong, Samsung Electronics President Park Seung-hee, Samsung C&T President Oh Se-cheol, Hyundai Motor Company President Seo Kang-hyeon, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency President Kang Kyeong-seong, and Korea Water Resources Corporation President Yoon Seok-dae.
At the event, the 'Korea-Central Asia Business Joint Declaration' was adopted, which contains the direction and commitment to future economic cooperation.
The economic communities of the six countries decided to develop concrete cooperation results in major areas of cooperation, including ▲ diversifying trade and investment and discovering new cooperation opportunities in the artificial intelligence (AI) and digital fields ▲ expanding the value chain of core minerals and strengthening energy cooperation such as renewable energy and nuclear power plants ▲ expanding cooperation in plants, infrastructure and logistics, and discovering business opportunities in future infrastructure fields such as smart cities.
Choi Tae-won, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “What is important is that today’s joint declaration does not remain just a declaration,” adding, “The will for cooperation confirmed in the joint declaration will lead to actual investment and business, and the business community will play an active role so that more Korean and Central Asian companies can find new opportunities in each other’s markets.”
At the site, 19 cooperation agreements (MOUs) were signed involving major companies and institutions such as Hyundai Motor Company, LG Electronics, and Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.
These MOUs focused on concretizing existing cooperation in areas such as core minerals and energy, infrastructure and logistics, digital and AI, smart cities, bio, and education, while discovering new business opportunities.
Kim Jong-il, full-time vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "Through this event, the leaders of six countries, including Korea and Central Asia, and the economic community shared the direction of future cooperation and laid a new foundation for economic cooperation at the multilateral level." He added, "The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry will actively support so that the cooperation measures discussed at this summit lead to actual investment and business results."
In conjunction with the business summit, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) also hosted the ‘Korea-Central Asia Business Partnership’ event.
In this event, 33 Central Asian buyers, orderers, and suppliers and over 90 domestic companies participated, and over 200 export consultations were conducted in areas such as infrastructure, energy, consumer goods, and distribution.
At the site, 16 export contracts worth a total of $14 million were signed, including a product supply contract worth $3 million between Artbox and Casia Imports.
