South Korea and Vietnam agreed Monday to expand their cooperation in environmental fields such as biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources, officials here said.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between South Korea's Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Quang in Vietnam's capital, Ho Chi Minh City, they said.

During the talks, the 11th of its kind, the two ministers agreed to further mutual cooperation for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources and begin cooperation in the management of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, according to the officials.

The agreement came as an international protocol, dubbed the "Nagoya Protocol," for facilitating the equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of genetic resources came into force earlier this month.

South Korea currently is helping the Southeast Asian country with five environmental cooperation projects, including one for developing an automatic water-quality monitoring system suitable for Vietnamese conditions.

The two ministers agreed to work together to have those projects create more business opportunities for South Korean firms.

In addition, the two sides decided to expand cooperation in sectors such as weather, joint research on the purification of dioxin-contaminated soils in Vietnam and education of environmental officials.

"This agreement between Vietnam, a country with rich biological resources, and South Korea with its specialized knowledge and technologies, would be of great help to South Korea in securing useful biological resources and new growth engines," said Lim Hyeong-seon, an official in charge of overseas cooperation projects at the South Korean environment ministry. (Yonhap)