The leaders of South Korea and the Czech Republic discussed ways to bolster economic cooperation particularly regarding the central European state’s large-scale infrastructure projects including the construction of a nuclear power plant during their summit in Prague on Wednesday.
 

President Park Geun-hye and her Czech counterpart Milos Zeman explored possibilities to further enhance their countries’ strategic partnership on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, Seoul officials said.

Park was the first South Korean president to visit Czech Republic in 20 years. Park’s visit was part of her seven-day trip to Europe, which also took her to a premier U.N. climate change forum in France.

During the summit, Park was expected to call on Zeman to support South Korean firms to join the country’s social overhead capital projects -- particularly, its plan to build one or two nuclear reactors, which is estimated to be worth more than 10 trillion won ($8.5 billion). The Czech Republic is expected to open the bid for the project order next year.

In February when Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka visited Seoul, Park expressed her country’s hopes to join Czech’s project to construct a nuclear power plant.

Other SOC projects that the Czech’s government has been pushing for involve the construction of railways, transportation and communication systems, Seoul officials said.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss ways to expand their economic cooperation, which has hitherto been limited to the manufacturing sector, to other areas such as science, information and technology, health care and medicine and culture, the officials noted.

On Thursday, Park is to attend a summit with the leaders of the “Visegrad Group” of four central European states: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

During the summit, Park is expected to propose new business opportunities that would arise from the blending of South Korea’s applied science technologies and the four nations’ strengths in basic sciences, Seoul officials said.

Park also plans to explore ways to help South Korean firms participate in massive infrastructure projects including ones to build subway and communication systems in the Visegrad Group countries.

Before flying to Prague, Park visited the UNESCO headquarters and delivered a speech to stress the importance of education to tackle terrorism, extremism and violence.

“We should work together to find the fundamental solution to violent extremism and conflicts between cultures and between religions,” she said during the speech. “The solution lies in the education and we should spread and strengthen education to nurture world citizens.”

During the speech, Park also pledged Seoul’s efforts to establish an “objective, democratic” procedure to consult over the UNESCO’s documentary register, while reiterating Seoul’s intention to host the secretariat for the organization’s Memory of the World Committee for the Asia-Pacific.

Park’s remarks came amid Japan’s angry response to China’s attempt at listing Japan’s wartime atrocities including its sexual enslavement of women on the Memory of the World.

Seoul plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.N. organization over the hosting of the secretariat next Wednesday.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)