Vietnam, RoK look to beef up strategic partnership

President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Geun-hye is set to arrive in Hanoi on September 7 for her four-day state visit to Vietnam.

President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Geun-hye is set toarrive in Hanoi on September 7 for her four-day state visit to Vietnam,which is expected to greatly enhance trust, cooperation andunderstanding between the two sides.

This isPresident Park’s first visit to Vietnam since she took office inFebruary this year, and the fifth one by a RoK President since the twonations established diplomatic relations in 1992.

She is scheduled to hold talks with President Truong Tan Sang and havemeetings with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime MinisterNguyen Tan Dung and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.

During over two-decades of ties, Vietnam and the RoK – strategic partners since 2009 – have grown closer in all fields.

The two sides have regularly exchanged delegations at all levels. Mostrecently, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan made a three-dayvisit on August 25.

Among the 96 countries andterritories investing in Vietnam, the RoK ranks fourth after Japan,Taiwan and Singapore, with 3,392 projects underway.

Major Korean enterprises such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai have been operating in Vietnam for a long time.

Vietnam is the ninth largest export market of the RoK. Two-way tradein 2012 reached 21.12 billion USD, 42 times more than the 500 millionUSD figure recorded in 1992. In the first seven months of 2013, thenumber reached 15.1 billion USD, a 40 percent rise year-on-year.

In recent years the RoK has come only second to Japan as the countryto offer the most official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam – itslargest ODA recipient. More than 200 million USD was granted in 2011 toVietnam, a country that the RoK considers to boast the three crucialpillars of green growth, human resources training and infrastructuredevelopment.

The two sides signed an agreement onODA cooperation, in which the RoK committed to supply Vietnam with 1.2billion USD from its Economic Development Cooperation Fund in the2012-2015 period, up 200 million USD against the 2008-2011 period.

The RoK also has the second highest number of citizens travelling toVietnam. In the first seven months of this year, 439,100 came, a 4.3percent increase over the same period last year.

Thetwo sides have signed their cooperation agreement in culture and amemorandum of understanding in art, sports and tourism partnerships.

In 2006, the RoK Cultural Centre was established in Hanoi .Currently, more than 500 Vietnamese students are studying, mostly attertiary and post-graduate levels, in the RoK.

Inaddition, the RoK is Vietnam’s second largest labour export market,receiving 68,000 Vietnamese guest workers under its Employment PermitSystem (EPS) programme.

Meanwhile, people-to-peoplediplomacy between the two countries has also been fostered with theintroduction of a number of associations, including the Vietnam-RoKFriendship Association and the Vietnam-RoK Parliamentarian FriendshipAssociation.

Cooperation among localities in bothcountries has been expanded with cooperative relations seen betweenHanoi and Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City and Bussan city, and Da Nang andDeagu.

As the fourth strongest economy in Asia andthe 15 th in the world, RoK trade earnings in 2012 were more than 1.1trillion USD. In the first seven months of this year, the number was622.3 billion USD, helping the country remain its trade surplus in 18consecutive months.

The upcoming visit of PresidentPark Geun-Hee aims to affirm that the RoK attaches importance and iskeen on strengthening the strategic partnership with Vietnam.-VNA

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