President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Photo: VNA)The visit from December 4-6 is made at the invitation of RoK President Yoon SukYeol.
PresidentPhuc is the first foreign senior leader to pay a state visit to the RoK sincePresident Yoon took office, showing the RoK’s appreciation of its ties withVietnam when the Vietnamese President will be welcomed with the highest rites.
The visit takes place at a time when the two countries arecelebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties, are entering apivotal period to carry out their own development strategies, especiallyfollowing the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected to usher in new chapter inbilateral ties.
Vietnam and the RoK established their diplomatic relations on December 22, 1992but they had engaged in cooperative activities earlier. In August 2001, the twonations issued a joint statement on the comprehensive partnership in the 21stcentury on the occasion of Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong's visit to theRoK. In October 2009, the bilateral ties were upgraded to a strategiccooperative partnership during the Vietnam visit by President Lee Myung-bak.
On political, national defence-security cooperation, the exchange ofdelegations and bilateral meetings have been maintained in both online andin-person formats.
As of September 2022, the RoK remained the biggest foreign investor inVietnam with 80.52 billion USD, accounting for 18.6% of the total investment inthe country.
With 1.2 billion USD in preferential loans from the Economic DevelopmentCooperation Fund (EDCF) for 2012-2015 and 1.5 billion USD for 2016-2020, theRoK was the second biggest provider of official development assistance (ODA)for Vietnam. The RoK was also the third biggest trade partner of Vietnam withtwo-way trade of 66.65 billion USD in 2019, 65 billion USD in 2020 and 78billion USD in 2021.
On the back of the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) and the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the two countries are looking toward100 billion USD in bilateral trade next year and 150 billion USD by 2030, bycreating favourable conditions for Vietnam’s exports of agro-aquatic productsand seasonal fruits.
The two countries are also working closely on regional and global issues ofshared concern, including the East Sea issue and Korean Peninsula, stepping upcoordination at multilateral forums and organisations as well as bilateral andmultilateral free trade deals of which both nations are members.
Vietnam is the second biggest source of guest workers to the RoK, behind China,while the RoK was the second largest recipient of Vietnamese guest workers,behind Taiwan (China). At present, about 48,000 Vietnamese labourers areworking in the RoK.
In recent years, the RoK has emerged as the second biggest source of touriststo Vietnam, behind China, reaching 4.2 million in 2019, up 23.1% from theprevious year. The number of Vietnamese visitors to the RoK reached 550,000, up21.9% year on year.
So far, most of Vietnamese cities, provinces and localities have inkedcooperation deals with Korean localities, organisations and businesses. Koreaninvestors are now present in 59 localities, mostly in Bac Ninh, Hanoi, DongNai, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen, and Ho Chi Minh City./.
VNA
