The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) organised a gala in Hanoi on November 30 to honour the friendship between the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Vietnam.

Around 200 members from the KOICA Club, and representatives from Vietnamese agencies that receive RoK volunteers and are involved in development cooperation projects with KOICA, attended the event.

The event, the 13 th of its kind held in Hanoi , offered Vietnamese officials who had taken part in KOICA courses in the RoK to meet each other, strengthening the friendship between the two nations.

In addition to the display of photographs taken by KOICA Club members in the RoK, the agency’s programmes and projects in 2012 were introduced. The gala featured a Vietnam-RoK art performance by students from Dinh Bo Linh primary school, one of the 40 schools in central Vietnam built with funding from KOICA.

Speaking at the gala, KOICA Chief Representative in Vietnam , Kim In, reviewed the cooperation between the two countries in the last 20 years. He affirmed that KOICA will continue to support Vietnam fulfil its goal to become an industrialised country by 2020.

Next year, the agency plans to implement the Development Experience Exchange Programme (DEEP), which is aimed at improving the efficiency of training programmes./.VNA