IBK made an announcement on Nov. 26 that it signed a business agreement with Myanmar MSME Development Working Committee at Lotte Hotel in Busan on Nov. 25 to help South Korea and Myanmar's small and medium-sized enterprises and vitalize mutual expansion.
Under the agreement, the two agencies agreed to cooperate in policies to support small and medium-sized businesses and exchange information and manpower, support mutual advancement of small and medium-sized enterprises in both countries, train policy and financial experts for them, and jointly develop policy financial products to support them and share know-how.
The Myanmar MSME Development Working Committee is a government organization that implements policies to develop small and medium-sized enterprises in Myanmar.
"We expect this agreement to create a close cooperation system for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises of both countries," a Myanmar government official said at the signing ceremony.
"Myanmar is a country that has the biggest growth potential in the Indochina Peninsula along with Vietnam," an official at the Industrial Bank of Korea said. "We pushed for a business agreement to contribute to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and economic cooperation between the two countries and cooperate with the New Southern Policy being pursued by the Korean government."
IBK is seeking to establish an "IBK Asian financial belt" linking China, Japan, Vietnam, India, the Philippines and Cambodia by launching a local bank in Indonesia in September to support local SMEs' overseas expansion.
