At the working session (Photo: VNA)Both sides agreed that they boast major potential tofurther expand their economic and trade ties to match their sound politicalrelations.
Sharing similarities in consumer interests, having a complementarygoods structure, and being members of many joint free trade agreements, Vietnamand the RoK have seen increasingly tight links in the global value chain, theynoted.
Believing that COVID-19 is likely to remain a complex issue and create difficultiesin bilateral economic and trade ties, Dien and the ambassador sought measuresto promote trade, industrial, and energy cooperation between the two sides inthe future.
They agreed to continue working closely together and tooptimise the efficiency of existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms to reach specificgoals, including in COVID-19 prevention and control, while implementing actionplans to realise the target of 100 billion USD in two-way trade by 2023.
Both sides will strengthen links in the Vietnam-RoKsupply chain while fostering cooperation in energy, strengthening the operationsof the Vietnam-RoK Centre for Consultation and Technology Solutions, andorganising regular dialogues between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and RoKenterprises.
Dien shared the difficulties facing RoK-funded projects amid COVID-19,including those related to the entry of experts and high-quality humanresources into Vietnam, especially in projects in Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, VinhPhuc and Thai Nguyen provinces.
He underlined that these difficulties are onlytemporary and that the localities will promptly bring COVID-19 under control.
He asked for support from RoK enterprises for Vietnam’s measures in COVID-19prevention and control, to avoid the spread of the virus in the community.
In order to ensure safe and continued production atforeign firms and those from the RoK, Dien asked the ambassador as well as the SamsungGroup and the SK Group, which have signed agreements on COVID-19 vaccineproduction in the RoK with the Moderna and Novanax Groups, to assist Vietnam inaccessing vaccine sources so the country can reach its goal of conductinglarge-scale vaccinations, especially among workers at companies in industrialparks, including those from the RoK.
For his part, Ambassador Park Noh-wan and representatives from RoK firmsaffirmed that they will try to provide Vietnam with better access to COVID-19vaccines, helping the country implement its “dual targets” of protecting people’shealth and speeding up socio-economic development and recovery in the “newnormal”.
According to figures from the Asian-African MarketDepartment, in the first four months of 2021, two-way trade between Vietnam andthe RoK hit 23.7 billion USD, up 15 percent year-on-year, with Vietnam’sexports of 7.1 billion USD being a year-on-year increase of 14.3 percent.Vietnam posted a trade deficit of about 9.5 billion USD with the RoK in theperiod, up 9.3 percent over the same period last year.
The RoK is Vietnam’s largest foreign investor, with 9,076 projects and capitalof nearly 72 billion USD as of May 20, 2021./.
VNA
