[THE INVESTOR] South Korea and Laos signed 18 memoranda of understanding on Sept. 9 to deepen bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, health care, infrastructure development and cultural exchanges, Cheong Wa Dae said.

The MOUs, mostly about economic cooperation, were inked after the summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Laotian counterpart Bounnhang Vorachith in Vientiane.

Laos is the third and last leg of Park’s eight-day trip that also took her to Russia and China.

Among them were a set of MOUs to beef up cooperation in nurturing Laotian medical professionals, preventing infectious diseases and introducing telemedicine services, which will enhance Laos’ welfare system and pave the way for South Korea’s medical industry to make inroads into the Southeast Asian region, Seoul officials said.

The MOUs will boost the “South Korea-Laos Seoul Project” through which Seoul has conducted joint medical research, trained Laotian medical professors and provided telemedicine-related assistance. Since 2011, the project has trained 72 Laotian professors.

The project is modeled after the “Minnesota Project,” an aid program that Washington carried out from 1955-61 to help lay the foundation for South Korea’s medical sector. Under the project, 226 South Korean professors, including 77 doctors, received training in the University of Minnesota.

The MOUs also include a set of arrangements to bolster agricultural cooperation by sharing policy information and expanding technological exchanges, and to construct an eco-friendly energy town in Laos.

Another MOU concerns Laos’ infrastructure development scheme.

South Korea‘s Export-Import Bank signed a loan arrangement -- worth US$53 million -- with Laos’ finance ministry to support a project to manage the areas along the Mekong River in Champasak province, southern Laos.

The two countries’ culture ministries also signed an MOU to increase their cooperation in tourism and cultural exchanges, while the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and Laos’ Ministry of Planning and Investment signed an MOU to expand investment cooperation.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)