By Song Baleun and Kim Minji

President Moon Jae-in on Sept. 3 held a bilateral summit with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on the second leg of his tour of three Southeast Asian countries, and agreed to develop friendly cooperative relations a step further for prosperity in both countries. 

Both leaders also reaffirmed that Korea's New Southern Policy and the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan seek people-centered development. They also pledged to promote projects through which the peoples of both nations can feel the effects by coordinating the policies of the two governments. 

Furthermore, the two sides agreed to set up a minister-level joint committee on trade and launch a so-called Korea Desk, a one-stop service center for Korean businesses within the Myanmar government, as an institutional base to efficiently expand economic cooperation. 

After their summit, President Moon and Suu Kyi signed an intergovernmental accord and five interagency agreements, including a memorandum of understanding on international trade and industry and a basic loan contract for doubling a fund for economic development cooperation from USD 500 million to USD 1 billion. 

On Sept. 4, President Moon will attend in Yangon the groundbreaking ceremony for an industrial complex and a business forum before flying out to Laos on Sept. 5 for a state visit.

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