Park vows full effort for economic diplomacy

President Park Geun-hye pledged Monday that she will spare no effort to help boost achievement in South Korea's economic diplomacy with other countries.

"I will visit anywhere for the sake of our economic takeoff,"

Park said in a meeting with local business leaders meant to demonstrate her commitment to taking follow-up steps for her recent trip to Central Asia.

The comments came weeks after she traveled to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to expand economic cooperation and win support for her vision to tie Eurasian nations together through infrastructure development and trade.

Park's Eurasia Initiative calls for building more infrastructure and freeing up trade between Eurasian nations to create what could become a large single market rivaling the European Union.

In June, Park and her Uzbek counterpart agreed to push for new joint projects in gas development and solar power.

The agreement, if realized, would lead to South Korean participation in a US$4 billion gas development project in the Bukhara region of central Uzbekistan.

South Korea has been exploring the so-called economic diplomacy to help boost Asia's fourth-largest economy.

In May, South Korea's state-run think tank, the Korea Development Institute, lowered its growth outlook for this year to 3.7 percent from 3.9 percent, citing negative impacts from the sluggish private-sector consumption hit by a deadly ferry disaster in April. (Yonhap)