DUSHANBE, May 14, Asia-Plus  -- On Monday 13, Shukurjon Zuhurov, Chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) received visiting South Korean parliamentary delegation, led by Kim Tanyon, the head of the South Korea/Tajikistan Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Muhammadato Sultonov, a spokesman for the Majlisi Namoyandagon, says the sides discussed a broad range of issues related to parliamentary and economic cooperation between the two countries.

According to him, opportunities of establishment of the labor migration cooperation between Tajikistan and South Korea were also among major topics of the meeting.

Zuhurov reportedly briefed Korean parliamentarians on Tajikistan’s manpower potential and reminded them that the issue of establishment of the labor migration cooperation between the two countries was discussed at his meeting with Korean minister of employment and labor in Seoul in 2011.

Tajik parliament speaker also called on South Korea to participate more actively in implementation of investment projects in Tajikistan.  He outlined sectors like energy, industry and telecommunications, as areas of which could drive the bilateral trade between Tajikistan and South Korea.

“Zuhurov stressed that to-date, Tajikistan and South Korea have signed only two documents that practically do not promote expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries,” Sultonov said.

For their part, Korean parliamentarians noted that Seoul is currently working out draft agreements on avoidance of double taxation, expansion of trade and economic cooperation, labor migration cooperation, and establishment of air communication between the two countries, the spokesman said.

We will recall that the South Korean parliamentary delegation arrived in Dushanbe on May 12 for a three-day working visit.

While in Dushanbe, Korean MPs they are also scheduled to hold talks with Ms. Makhfirat Khidirova, the chairperson of the Tajikistan/South Korea Parliamentary Friendship Group within the Majlisi Namoyandagon.

The parties are expected to consider a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between Dushanbe and Seoul.

The Tajikistan/South Korea Parliamentary Friendship Group is a group of elected members of Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament whose aims to foster even stronger relations between the two countries (Tajikistan and South Korea) and their elected representatives.

The National Assembly is the 300-member unicameral legislature of South Korea. The latest legislative elections were held on April 11, 2012.  Single-member constituencies comprise 246 of the assembly''s seats, while the remaining 54 are allocated by proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms.

The unicameral assembly consists of at least 200 members according to the Constitution.  In 1990 the assembly had 299 seats, 224 of which were directly elected from single-member districts in the general elections of April 1988.  Under applicable laws, the remaining seventy-five representatives were appointed by the political parties in accordance with a proportional formula based on the number of seats won in the election.  By law, candidates for election to the assembly must be at least thirty years of age.

As part of a political compromise in 1987, an earlier requirement that candidates have at least five years'' continuous residency in the country was dropped to allow Kim Dae-jung, who had spent several years in exile in Japan and the United States during the 1980s, to return to political life.  The National Assembly''s term is four years.  In a change from the more authoritarian Fourth Republic and Fifth Republic (1972–80 and 1980–87, respectively), under the Sixth Republic, the assembly cannot be dissolved by the president.