South Korean ambassador to Bangladesh Park Young-sik on Saturday said that Bangladesh and South Korea both could further develop the existing bilateral relations in a mutually beneficial manner.

‘Korea is not India, China, or the United States and does not have strategic interests in Bangladesh,’ he said while delivering his keynote speech at Cosmos Dialogue.

Building on what both countries have achieved over the past five decades, the ambassador said, it is now high time for both countries to make the next 50 years even more prosperous.

To do this, he said that both countries need to expand high-level contacts.

Cosmos Foundation hosted the dialogue — the latest edition of Ambassadors’ Lecture Series titled Bangladesh-South Korea Relations: Prognosis for the Future.

Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Cosmos Foundation president, scholar-diplomat, and former foreign affairs advisor of Bangladesh caretaker government chaired and conducted the session.

Enayetullah Khan, chairman of the Cosmos Foundation, delivered the closing remarks while Masud Khan, deputy managing director of Cosmos Group, delivered the welcome remarks.

Former ambassador Farooq Sobhan, honorary adviser emeritous of Cosmos Foundation Tariq A Karim, Mohammadi Group chairperson Rubana Huq, Dhaka University international relations department teacher Professor Lailufar Yasmin, and East West University economics department teacher Assistant Professor Parvez Karim Abbasi comprised the panel of discussants.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Republic of Korea and Bangladesh in 1973, the two countries have been enhancing cooperation in various fields, such as politics, economy, culture, development cooperation, and human exchange.

The two-way trade has surpassed $3 billion recently.

South Korea’s investment in Bangladesh is the fifth largest in terms of accumulated amount.

The South Korean ambassador identified footwear and leather, ICT, pharmaceutical, shipbuilding and ship breaking industry, Blue Economy and deep sea fishing, agricultural and agricultural machinery, greenhouse and carbon trading scheme as new areas of bilateral cooperation.

He said that prime minister Sheikh Hasina and South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol met in New Delhi on September 9 on the sidelines of G20 and vowed to further deepen cooperation in trade and commerce, culture and people to people contacts.

Issues related to diversifying Bangladesh’s export, economic partnership agreement between the two countries, cooperation in education sector, climate change, foreign direct investment, collaboration in fashion design and ways to add values to existing trade were discussed.

Former and current diplomats, foreign affairs experts, and economists were present at the dialogue.