South Korea and Turkmenistan agreed Friday to expand economic ties in the private sector by setting up a special committee on new areas of cooperation, the government said.

The agreement, reached at the fifth bilateral cooperation meeting in Seoul, calls for the committee made up of both government and private sector representatives to meet and pin point future areas of business interest, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

No date has been given on when the first meeting of the envisioned committee will be held, although the ministry said it will be convened as soon as possible.

The move comes just after a consortium made up of Hyundai Engineering Co. and LG International Corp. secured two industrial plant orders worth a combined US$4.83 billion in Turkmenistan.

The two South Korean companies are also expected to ink a separate $940 million deal to modernize the Central Asian country's oil refinery infrastructure, and another "framework agreement" to pursue a gas-to-liquid plant project potentially worth $3.89 billion on Monday.

These deals will be signed during Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow's four-day visit to South Korea, which starts Saturday.

 Besides the creation of the committee, Trade and Commerce Minister Yoon Sang-jick and Deputy Prime Minister for Oil and Gas Industry Baymyrat Hojamuhammedov also discussed ways to strengthen exchange in the energy and plant construction, trade and commerce, and transportation fields, the ministry said. (Yonhap)