TASHKENT - South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun is to visit Uzbekistan next week in a bid to deepen economic ties between the two countries, an Uzbek foreign ministry official said on Thursday.
Roh, who is to be accompanied by a large delegation of business people, will arrive in Tashkent for talks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov on May 10, the official said.
The two men will sign a number of documents on deepening economic ties, according to the official.
Roh will also meet members of Uzbekistan's Korean minority, a community several hundred thousand-strong that settled here in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably when Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered a mass deportation of Koreans from the Russian far east to Central Asia in 1937.
Roh will continue his visit with a trip to the historic city of Samarkand on May 11.
South Korea's biggest investment in Uzbekistan so far has been the establishment of a joint venture, Uz-Daewoo, by Daewoo Motor Company in the 1990s. Uz-Daewoo is the main car producer for Uzbekistan and also exports to the wider region, despite Daewoo Motor's subsequent bankruptcy.
Roh is due to leave Uzbekistan on May 12.
05/05/2005 14:03 GMT