Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung visited Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Thai Nguyen province in February to check the company's COVID-19 prevention and control measures (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Korean Ambassadorto Vietnam Park Noh-wan has written anarticle on the relationship between the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Vietnam.Following is the full text of the article.
As of May 19, 2020, the numberof infected cases from COVID-19 pandemic in the world reached more than4,740,000 causing tragic loss oflives of over 310,000 people.
Right now, COVID-19 is stillspreading rapidly around the globe with the US and Europe remaining theepicentres of the outbreak. Nowhere in the world is safe from COVID-19.
Among this unprecedented globalhealth crisis, there are a few countries where people are gradually gettingback to their normal daily lives: Vietnam and the Republic of Korea. The twocountries have successfully coped with the crisis thanks to their excellentepidemic prevention capacity and dedicated efforts of their people, which ledto these countries be praised by the world as successful model cases infighting COVID-19.
Despite concerns about thevulnerability of Vietnam to COVID-19 due to its relatively limited publichealth capacity, Vietnam has so far recorded only 324 cases and nointra-community infection for 33 days in a row. This is the result ofjoint efforts of the Vietnamese government and people in all socio-economic areaswith the spirit of 'fighting against the pandemic like fighting against anenemy’.
Mr. Ousmane Dione, the CountryDirector of the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam, hailed Vietnam’s response toCOVID-19 as exceptional. British newspaper The Financial Times also highlightedthat the fight against COVID-19 of Vietnam won praise for its low-cost model.
One of the bases of the successstemmed from implementing effective measures against the pandemic. PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated that “Vietnam has basically pushed theCOVID-19 pandemic away and this is the joint victory of the Party, State andPeople” at the recent regular Government meeting on April 28.
In fact, Vietnamese people arecautiously but gradually returning to a peaceful and stable life. Two weeksago, on the occasion of South Vietnam Liberation Day on April 30 andInternational Labour Day on May 1, Hanoi streets were full of cars andmotorbikes while many people enjoyed daily life with their families and friendsat restaurants and cafes.
On the other hand, South Korea,which was at high-risk recording hundreds of new daily infection cases in theearly stage of COVID-19 outbreak, has continued to implement pandemicprevention measures based on three principles: Open, Transparent and Civic Engagement.Accordingly, the daily number of new cases has been subdued and the governmentof South Korea has finally shifted focus from social distancing towarddistancing in daily life starting from May 6. Public facilities such aslibraries have resumed operations and students started to go back to school.Also, South Korea is the only country in the world initiating its professionalfootball and baseball leagues at the same time. As Korean people are graduallyreturning to daily life, AFP, leading global news agency of France, introducedKorea as ‘the first country to overcome COVID-19’ and Antonio Guterres,Secretary-General of the United Nations, hailed ‘Korea’s measures againstCOVID-19 have been extremely successful’.
I am truly proud of the factthat both Vietnam and Korea have gradually stabilised their COVID-19 situationand are being considered as the most successful countries in fighting thepandemic. But at the same time, I sincerely hope that, as much as their peopleare going back to their daily lives, the two countries could also resume theirprevious excellent relationships in terms of people-to-people exchange.
Taking into consideration thefact that Vietnam has been the key partner of the New Southern Policy of SouthKorea and has actively interacted with South Korea in various areas of economy,tourism and culture, the two countries should begin now to actively exploreways to normalise their people-to-people exchange to be well prepared for thepost COVID-19 ‘New Normal’.
I think that governments of thetwo countries have in fact common values and shared interests in normalisingpeople-to-people exchange. That is the very reason why the Vietnamesegovernment allowed entry to Vietnam of the essential personnel of largecorporations such as Samsung and LG as well as SMEs of South Korea necessary tocontinue their business and production process without a hitch. Further tothese make-shift measures, the Vietnamese government and the Korean Embassy inHà Nội began to discuss ways to devise frameworks to normalise exchangeactivities between the two countries.
As people-to-people exchangestarted after going through a difficult process, like a proverb “A goodbeginning is half the task”, I hope that the airlines between the two countrieswill soon be reopened as previously so that more people of the two countriescan freely visit each other. As more people move freely, the RoK and Vietnamwill be not only the leaders in COVID-19 prevention and control but also besuccessful even in the post COVID-19 ‘New Normal’.
A Vietnamese proverb says that“There is sunshine after the rain”. I firmly believe that like this proverb,after this rain of “COVID-19”, relationship between the RoK and Vietnam will bebrighter than ever.
Lastly, I would like to take thisopportunity to appreciate the efforts of the Vietnamese government innormalising people-to-people exchange between Vietnam and the RoK. Moreover, asthe Korean Ambassador to Vietnam, I also would like to promise that I will domy best to build closer relationship between the two countries./.
As of May 19, 2020, the numberof infected cases from COVID-19 pandemic in the world reached more than4,740,000 causing tragic loss oflives of over 310,000 people.
Right now, COVID-19 is stillspreading rapidly around the globe with the US and Europe remaining theepicentres of the outbreak. Nowhere in the world is safe from COVID-19.
Among this unprecedented globalhealth crisis, there are a few countries where people are gradually gettingback to their normal daily lives: Vietnam and the Republic of Korea. The twocountries have successfully coped with the crisis thanks to their excellentepidemic prevention capacity and dedicated efforts of their people, which ledto these countries be praised by the world as successful model cases infighting COVID-19.
Despite concerns about thevulnerability of Vietnam to COVID-19 due to its relatively limited publichealth capacity, Vietnam has so far recorded only 324 cases and nointra-community infection for 33 days in a row. This is the result ofjoint efforts of the Vietnamese government and people in all socio-economic areaswith the spirit of 'fighting against the pandemic like fighting against anenemy’.
Mr. Ousmane Dione, the CountryDirector of the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam, hailed Vietnam’s response toCOVID-19 as exceptional. British newspaper The Financial Times also highlightedthat the fight against COVID-19 of Vietnam won praise for its low-cost model.
One of the bases of the successstemmed from implementing effective measures against the pandemic. PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated that “Vietnam has basically pushed theCOVID-19 pandemic away and this is the joint victory of the Party, State andPeople” at the recent regular Government meeting on April 28.
In fact, Vietnamese people arecautiously but gradually returning to a peaceful and stable life. Two weeksago, on the occasion of South Vietnam Liberation Day on April 30 andInternational Labour Day on May 1, Hanoi streets were full of cars andmotorbikes while many people enjoyed daily life with their families and friendsat restaurants and cafes.
On the other hand, South Korea,which was at high-risk recording hundreds of new daily infection cases in theearly stage of COVID-19 outbreak, has continued to implement pandemicprevention measures based on three principles: Open, Transparent and Civic Engagement.Accordingly, the daily number of new cases has been subdued and the governmentof South Korea has finally shifted focus from social distancing towarddistancing in daily life starting from May 6. Public facilities such aslibraries have resumed operations and students started to go back to school.Also, South Korea is the only country in the world initiating its professionalfootball and baseball leagues at the same time. As Korean people are graduallyreturning to daily life, AFP, leading global news agency of France, introducedKorea as ‘the first country to overcome COVID-19’ and Antonio Guterres,Secretary-General of the United Nations, hailed ‘Korea’s measures againstCOVID-19 have been extremely successful’.
I am truly proud of the factthat both Vietnam and Korea have gradually stabilised their COVID-19 situationand are being considered as the most successful countries in fighting thepandemic. But at the same time, I sincerely hope that, as much as their peopleare going back to their daily lives, the two countries could also resume theirprevious excellent relationships in terms of people-to-people exchange.
Taking into consideration thefact that Vietnam has been the key partner of the New Southern Policy of SouthKorea and has actively interacted with South Korea in various areas of economy,tourism and culture, the two countries should begin now to actively exploreways to normalise their people-to-people exchange to be well prepared for thepost COVID-19 ‘New Normal’.
I think that governments of thetwo countries have in fact common values and shared interests in normalisingpeople-to-people exchange. That is the very reason why the Vietnamesegovernment allowed entry to Vietnam of the essential personnel of largecorporations such as Samsung and LG as well as SMEs of South Korea necessary tocontinue their business and production process without a hitch. Further tothese make-shift measures, the Vietnamese government and the Korean Embassy inHà Nội began to discuss ways to devise frameworks to normalise exchangeactivities between the two countries.
As people-to-people exchangestarted after going through a difficult process, like a proverb “A goodbeginning is half the task”, I hope that the airlines between the two countrieswill soon be reopened as previously so that more people of the two countriescan freely visit each other. As more people move freely, the RoK and Vietnamwill be not only the leaders in COVID-19 prevention and control but also besuccessful even in the post COVID-19 ‘New Normal’.
A Vietnamese proverb says that“There is sunshine after the rain”. I firmly believe that like this proverb,after this rain of “COVID-19”, relationship between the RoK and Vietnam will bebrighter than ever.
Lastly, I would like to take thisopportunity to appreciate the efforts of the Vietnamese government innormalising people-to-people exchange between Vietnam and the RoK. Moreover, asthe Korean Ambassador to Vietnam, I also would like to promise that I will domy best to build closer relationship between the two countries./.
VNA
