The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority says that Uzbekistan has opened a trade representative office at Songdo International City in Incheon on Friday.

The office located in Posco Tower is staffed by three public officials and two diplomats dispatched from the central Asian nation.

The trade office will serve to seek economic exchanges with South Korea.

Uzbekistan's embassy in Seoul earlier signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority. The Bukhara and Fergana regions in Uzbekistan also separately signed letters of intent on cooperation with the Incheon authority earlier this year.

An official at the authority has said that Uzbekistan is eyeing Incheon as a role model for establishing its own free economic zone, and has stationed its trade representative not in Seoul but in Incheon, the first foreign country to do so.