President Park Geun-hye says her recent state visit to Iran will provide Korea with some much-need growth momentum.<br />She says the visit could spark the second Middle East Boom, a period of lucrative business deals with the region.<br />Connie Kim reports. <br /><br /><br />Wrapping up President Park Geun-hye's state visit to Iran, the president said Seoul and Tehran were able to share a common view on forming a new cooperative relationship.<br />She went on to say Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran's highest figure in religion and politics, showed special interest in Seoul's economic growth story. <br /><br /><br />"He has faith in revitalizing Iran's economy which is the country's ultimate goal at this point. So, we naturally discussed our experience of economic development." <br /><br /><br />The President also pointed out it was worthwhile to help small and mid-sized Korean businesses through one-on-one consultations that had difficulty entering foreign markets. <br />Over 900 consultation sessions took place sealing record deals worth some 537 million U.S. dollars. <br />Referring to Seoul's past experience of boosting the Middle East economy in the 1970s, President Park said this was the chance to create a second Middle East boom.<br /><br /><br />"We can bring about a second Middle East boom and I plan to make sure that through this we can create a recovery momentum for the Korean economy as well as our export figures."<br /><br /><br />The Korean president and her Iranian counterpart announced a total of 66 MOUs including power plant and railway construction,... with the deal mounting to some 37 billion dollars for Seoul. <br />Iran's opposition of any forms of nuclear development on the Korean peninsula was also one of the biggest achievements the President noted during her three-day visit. <br /><br /><br />"I believe my trip to Iran was significant in that we made room for cooperation with Iran on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula." <br /><br /><br />The president also emphasized that Korean culture could pave the way for cooperation in other fields, taking note <br />
