NguyenViet Phong, Chairman of the Vietnamese People Association in Jeonnam - Gwangju,said there are about 20,000 Vietnamese people in the region, and that thecommunity has been growing strongly and contributing much to localsocio-economic development.
Headded this year’s event became even more meaningful as the twocountries are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their diplomaticties in December.
Inhis remarks, Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Nguyen Vu Tung said bilateralrelations are flourishing in all aspects, from politics, economy, security -defence to culture and people-to-people exchange. Leaders of the two countries have agreed to upgrade the Vietnam - RoK strategic cooperative partnership to a newlevel in 2022 to foster cooperation in the coming decades.
Notingthat labour cooperation has been an important field in the countries’ strategiccooperative partnership for many years, he highly valued the combination of theculture festival with the meeting with Vietnamese workers as it created anoccasion for disseminating laws and giving advice to the labourers.
Tungexpressed his hope that Vietnamese workers in the RoK, including in Jeonnam -Gwangju, will uphold good virtues of the Vietnamese people, comply with labourcontracts and local laws, and return to the homeland on schedule so that theycan continue working in the RoK in the future.
Thiswill help increase the number of Vietnamese workers in the RoK and strengthenmulti-faceted ties between the two countries, the ambassador added.
Vietnameselabourers have been sent to the RoK under the latter’s Employment Permit System(EPS) since 2004. About 50,000 Vietnamese people are working under this systemat present, according to the Overseas Labour Department under Vietnam’sMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs./.