Bakhtier N. Ibragimov, charge d’affaires of the Uzbek embassy, hosted a seminar in Seoul on Tuesday on recent political reforms in the Central Asian nation and its parliamentary elections in December.

Several prominent South Korean organizations and experts on Central Asia cohosted the lecture, including the Silk Road Foundation and Eom Gu-ho, a Hanyang University professor and director of its Asia-Pacific Research Center.

In the keynote speech, Gulchekhra Malikova, head of Uzbekistan’s Academy of State Governance, spoke about the recent reforms and expectations for the coming elections.

Uzbekistan implemented reforms in 2005, instituting a bicameral parliament and, more recently, political reforms opening up the electoral process have been implemented indicating the country could see its most transparent and competitive election to date.

The current parliament came into office in December 2009 for a term of five years. The country’s lower house, or Oliy Majlis, comprises 150 members. Its upper house has 100.

Earlier this year, the Central Election Commission adopted a program that slated the elections to the lower house on Dec. 21. The presidential election is scheduled to take place 90 days after the legislative elections.

South Korea established diplomatic ties with Uzbekistan in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. South Korea is now one of Uzbekistan’s largest investment partners. Since 2004, two-way trade has quadrupled, with over $6 billion in cumulative South Korean investment in the Uzbek economy.

In the 22 years since the two countries formally began relations, there have been 13 summit meetings between the heads of state of the two nations.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2014@heraldcorp.com)