Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A delegation of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan visited South Korea on 18-21 September to expand bilateral cooperation in the financial sector.

The Uzbek delegation held a meeting with the deputy head of the Korean Financial Service Commission Junghun Park. Junghun Park has emphasized the prospectus for cooperation between the Korean Financial Service and the Ministry of Finance.

The sides discussed the possibility of providing the consultant by the Korean Financial Service Commission for cooperation with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan and other regulatory bodies on the introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) procedures, as well as compliance control to prevent market manipulation in the capital market, use of insider information and other violations of the law.

A meeting was held between Deputy Minister of Finance Odilbek Isakov and Mr. Tae-yong Yang, vice president of the Korean Stock Exchange (KRX) on the development of the securities market infrastructure and further improvement of the trading platform established by the KRX. The Ministry of Finance highlighted the need of the qualitative execution of several tasks established by the presidential decree of the Republic of Uzbekistan of April 13, 2021 PD-6207, including:

- Improvement of the Unified Software Complex (USC) of the SUE “Information resource center of the stock market”;

- Full launch of USC’s automated market surveillance platform (“Total Market Surveillance”);

- The establishment of the procedure for issuing International Securities Identification Number (ISIN, CFI, and FISN) and other related to the platform changes.

Mr. Tae-yong Yang noted his awareness of the reforms carried out in Uzbekistan in recent years, as well as the fact that these reforms have a positive effect on the further development of the capital market of Uzbekistan.

Also, Mr. Tae-yong Yang expressed the need to organize a working level group and conduct relevant studies of the USC from the IT point of view in the implementation of the above mentioned tasks and changes and additions arising from the requirements of the capital market of Uzbekistan, and his readiness to allocate additional labor in the process of learning. At the next stage, it was agreed that additional negotiations will be held between the parties on the implementation of appropriate changes according to the result of the studies.

During the meeting with the director of the Korean Securities Depository, Mr. Kwang Yeon Cho highlighted the importance of the introduction of a Single Depository Institute in the capital market of the Republic of Uzbekistan and mentioned his readiness to provide the appropriate consultant to the Uzbek side for above mentioned goals.

Mr. Kwang Yeon Cho emphasized the necessity of integration of the depository module of Uzbekistan with international depositories (Clearstream, Euroclear) and the organization of depository services based on international standards to allow foreign investors to trade with government securities, and corporate bonds and shares using the services of custodian banks.

Official representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Central bank, the State Asset Management Agency, the “Toshkent” Republican stock exchange, and the Central Securities Depository participated in the “Knowledge Exchange Initiative” organized by the Council on International Financial Cooperation.

During the visit, relevant presentations were made on the current reforms in the development of the capital market of Uzbekistan, and during the presentations, conditions created for investors and the goals pursued the development of market infrastructure were demonstrated.