Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s upcoming state visit to the
Republic of Korea (RoK) is to further deepen the two countries’
five-year-old strategic partnership, with a focus on boosting economic
collaboration.
The October 1-4 visit will also help strengthen
political understanding and trust between the two countries’
high-ranking leaders as well as promote cooperation between the two
ruling parties and the friendship between the two peoples.
Since
Vietnam and the RoK set up diplomatic ties in 1992 and bilateral
ties were upgraded to a strategic cooperative partnership five years
ago, their relations have developed in a strong, comprehensive and
intensive manner.
The two countries have maintained the
exchange of annual high-level visits, most remarkably the visits by
National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in July 2013, RoK National
Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee in January 2013 and RoK President Park
Geun-hye in September 2013.
The RoK has been one of the top
economic partners of Vietnam. As of June this year, the country ranked
first among foreign investors in Vietnam with 3,687 projects and came
second in terms of registered capital with 31.2 billion USD, doubling
the 2008 figure.
The RoK is Vietnam ’s third largest trade
partner with two-way trade reaching 27.5 billion USD last year,
quadrupling the 2007 level. The two countries set to raise bilateral
trade to 70 billion USD by 2020 and are actively finalising negotiations
towards the early signing of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Vietnam imports computers, electronic products and components and
machinery from the RoK while selling garments and textiles, crude oil
and seafood to the East Asian nation.
The RoK is also the second
largest donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam,
after Japan, with a committed amount of 1.2 billion USD for the
2012-2015 period.
It ranks second among countries having
visitors to Vietnam, with around 750,000 last year, doubling the 2007
figure. The country is also the second largest importer of Vietnamese
labourers.
The two nations signed a cultural cooperation
agreement, a memorandum of understanding on culture, arts, sports and
tourism cooperation, and many others on education and youth exchange.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training has chosen the RoK
as a strategic partner for education and training cooperation.
Currently, more than 5,000 Vietnamese students are studying in the East
Asian country.
As many as 120,000 Vietnamese are living and
working in the RoK, including 50,000 Vietnamese-Korean couples. The RoK
community in Vietnam also numbers around 120,000.-VNA