National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug began his nine-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to strengthen economic ties with the three emerging Central Asian nations, the National Assembly said Thursday.

During the visit, Park will discuss cooperation in areas such as health care, energy, information and communications technology, public administration, agriculture and textiles.

On Wednesday, Park visited Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, to hold talks with National Assembly Chairman Rustam Emomali. He also met with President Emomali Rahmon to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tajikistan’s independence and discussed plans to expand development cooperation with the country, which was recently selected as a major official development assistance partner.

Park will make an official visit to Kyrgyzstan on Saturday. In the capital, Bishkek, Park will hold talks with National Assembly Speaker Talant Mamytov and Prime Minister Ulukbek Maripov to discuss ways to expand development cooperation with Kyrgyzstan.

He will also meet with President Sadyr Japarov to seek ways to expand bilateral cooperation in agriculture, textiles and tourism.

As the last destination, on Monday Park will visit Uzbekistan, which has the largest population in Central Asia and is actively promoting industrial diversification and modernization.

In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Park will meet House Speaker Nurdinjon Ismailov and Senate Speaker Tanzila Narbaeva to discuss ways to continue cooperation with Uzbekistan and to share Korea’s knowledge of health care, energy, ICT, public administration, agriculture and education.

Park will also meet with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to strengthen cooperation so that Korean companies can continue to participate in large-scale national projects.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)