South Korea will pursue "country-specific" cooperation programs with Central Asian countries to better secure natural resources and help build industrial infrastructure for the rapidly emerging economies, the government said Tuesday.

The finance ministry said that a comprehensive cooperation package strategy will be followed for large, resource-rich countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, with deal-by-deal tie-ups being sought for smaller countries like Tajikistan.

Source: Yonhap News (May 17, 2011)