By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 15, 2017: ON the First leg of his four-day official visit to Republic of Korea, the Union Minister for Finance, Mr Arun Jaitley, arrived in Seoul yesterday. After his arrival, he co-chaired the Fifth India-Korea Financial Dialogue with the newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister of the Republic of Korea, Mr Kim Dong-yeon. Noting that Mr Jaitley is the First Foreign Dignitary to be received in his tenure, the Deputy PM emphasized the importance that the new Government of ROK attaches to the development of the special strategic partnership with India.

The two Ministers reviewed the international economic situation, and India-Korea bilateral economic ties in that context. They agreed that in the face of uncertainty and the risk of rising protectionism, there was an urgent need for the two countries to increase efforts to stimulate investment flows, support for infrastructure development, and bilateral trade among others. As the world’s fastest growing large economy, India offers Korea important opportunities to deploy its capital and technologies in India, and for India, South Korea’s interest in finding new openings to diversify its economic partnerships offers India great opportunities.

Later, the two Ministers witnessed the Signing of Agreements to establish US$ 9 billion in concessional credit and USD 1 bn in ODA funding for infrastructure development projects in India. This implemented a decision taken during the State Visit of Prime Minister of India to South Korea in May 2015. With this, Republic of Korea became one of the First non-G-7 countries to become an Official Development Assistance (ODA) contributor in India. Both the Ministers also agreed to consider deploying part of this fund towards the Smart City projects in India. They also agreed to establish a mechanism at senior official levels, to identify good infrastructure projects in India, to draw upon these funds.