Vietnam and the RoK established diplomaticties on December 22, 1992. In August 2001, the two nations issued a jointstatement on comprehensive partnership in the 21st century on theoccasion of the RoK visit by Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong. In October2009, they boosted their relationship to strategic cooperative partnershiplevel during the Vietnam visit by Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
The two countries have contributed to forumsand multilateral cooperation frameworks in the region and the world, while bilateralties have been deepened via the regular exchange of high-level delegations.
Relations between the two legislatures havebeen nurtured bilaterally and multilaterally. During the RoK visit byVietnamese NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in July 2013, a cooperation dealbetween the two legislatures was signed.
Speakers of the Korean NA Chung Ui-hwa andChung Sye-kyun visited Vietnam in March 2015 and April 2017, respectively,while Vietnamese NA Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu visited the RoK in July 2017.The friendship parliamentarians groups of the two countries hold regularexchanges and activities during major festivals.
The RoK is the biggest foreign investor, thesecond largest supplier of official development assistance (ODA) (behind Japan)and the third largest trade partner of Vietnam, behind China and the EuropeanUnion (EU). Bilateral cooperation mechanisms have been maintained such as the Vietnam-RoKInter-Governmental Committee on Economic, Scientific and TechnologicalCooperation and the Ministerial-level Inter-Committee on cooperation in nuclearpower, energy and industry.
In the first 10 months of this year, two-waytrade hit 54.2 billion USD. The enforcement of the Vietnam – RoK free tradeagreement on December 20, 2015 is expected to lift the figure to 100 billionUSD by 2020.
As of October 2018, the RoK was the biggestinvestor among 128 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 7,323 projectsworth 62.1 billion USD, accounting for 18.3 percent of the total figure.
During the 10-month period, the RoK rankedsecond among 104 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with totalregistered capital of 6.5 billion USD, mostly in manufacturing and processing,real estate and construction in Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Dong Nai, Hai Phong and ThaiNguyen.
Vietnam is the largest recipient of ODA fromthe RoK. The RoK offered 1.2 billion USD in preferential loans to Vietnam fromits Economic Development Cooperation Fund in 2012-2015 and 1.5 billion USD for2016-2020, focusing on green growth, infrastructure construction and humanresources development.
The RoK is the second largest importer of Vietnameseguest workers, behind Taiwan and China while Vietnam is the second largest exporterof labourers to the country, behind China. The RoK launched the EmploymentPermit System (EPS) in 2004 under the Memorandum of Understanding on labourcooperation which is extended each year. Both sides are piloting the dispatchof workers from several Vietnamese localities to the RoK for seasonal agriculturejobs.
In recent years, the RoK has emerged as thesecond largest source of tourist arrivals in Vietnam, behind China. Last year, morethan 2.5 million Korean tourists arrived in Vietnam, up 56 percentyear-on-year. In 2017, the number of Vietnamese visitors to the RoK neared 325,000, up 29 percent annually.
In the January-October period, 2.8 millionKorean visitors landed in Vietnam, up 48.3 percent annually, while more than440,000 Vietnamese people visited the RoK, up 37.3 percent.
The two nations signed a culturalcooperation agreement in August 1994, a Memorandum of Understanding oncooperation in culture, arts, sports and tourism in October 2008 and otheragreements on youth and education exchanges. In 2006, the Korean CulturalCentre was established in Hanoi.
The RoK has assisted Vietnam in launchingnew rural development models, notably the happiness programme launched in thecentral province of Quang Tri and in the northern mountainous province of LaoCai in 2015.
The two sides signed a governmental-levelcooperation agreement on science and technology. The management board of theHoa Lac High-Tech Park and the RoK’s Chungnam Technology Science Park sealed acooperation agreement in 2010. The Vietnam – RoK industrial technologyincubator was inaugurated in 2015.
Collaboration in artificial intelligence hasbeen strengthened via information sharing and personnel training undercurricula by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the InternationalIntellectual Property Training Institute, automation in intellectual propertymanagement and the enforcement of commitments in the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Statistics from the Korea ImmigrationService showed that there were more than 190,000 Vietnamese nationals livingand working in the RoK as of October 2018 while about 150,000 Koreans have beenin Vietnam.
Regular friendship exchanges in each countryhave raised mutual understanding. Up to 60 localities of the two countries havesigned cooperation agreements. The two governments are hastening negotiationson a judicial assistance agreement in civil affairs and trade to make it easierfor their citizens to move to each other’s country.
The upcoming visit by the top legislatorwill also affirm support to the RoK’s New Southern Policy and realise an agreementsigned between the two legislatures in July 2013.-VNA