Seoul (VNA) – President of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man met with Chairman of the Korea-Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group Moon Jin Seok in Seoul on September 8 morning (local time).
President Man expressed his delight at meeting Moon and the group's members again, citing their consistent dedication and positive contributions to bilateral ties.
He said the Vietnamese delegation was the first foreign one to make an official visit at the invitation of NA Speaker of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Cho Jeong Sik, with representation from the Party, NA, Government and localities. Meetings with the RoK's NA Speaker and Prime Minister were highly successful and covered practical issues that fostered trust and opened specific cooperation avenues.
Moon said Vietnam has become a particularly close and special friend since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, with ties rapidly elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. He said the top Vietnamese legislator's visit would further advance relations.
Hailing the RoK as Vietnam's largest foreign investor, Moon said he hoped the target of 150 billion USD in bilateral trade by 2030 would be met and Korean firms would join large-scale infrastructure projects, creating new milestones in cooperation.
He welcomed the signing of the Master Plan Framework for Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation in April and hoped that joint research and workforce training would deliver concrete results.
Expressing concern over healthcare and residency issues, Moon said both countries should improve care for children and grandchildren of Vietnamese-Korean multicultural families.
The top Vietnamese legislator believed that the two parliamentary friendship groups would make lawmaker exchanges and inter-parliamentary cooperation more substantive and effective.
He praised billateral ties as positive with stronger political trust and urged practical and effective cooperation in economy, investment, trade, science, national defence, security, education, healthcare and people-to-people ties.
Cooperation must produce substantive results, and agreements signed through Party, Government and NA channels must be followed through by all sides, he said.
He said he would work with NA bodies on the RoK's proposals immediately after the visit, reporting NA-related issues to the legislature and urging Government, ministries, agencies and localities to settle matters under their authority.
According to him, Vietnam and the RoK share cultural similarities, including family values, emphasis on education and respect for etiquette, he said, so both sides should bolster people-to-people exchanges and showcase countries, people and cultures to build a stronger social foundation.
Welcoming more delegation exchanges between the two legislatures, he called on the group to develop a specific action plan for substantive and effective outcomes.
On artificial intelligent (AI) in lawmaking, he said Vietnam has passed an AI law and is accelerating digital transformation in the legislature, with a dedicated AI application for NA operations running for more than a year with clear results.
Moon backed the requests and said he hoped the visit would expand cooperation beyond investment and trade to future technologies, including AI, semiconductors and energy.
In his view, Vietnam-RoK relations should evolve beyond Vietnam serving as a production and supply base for Korean companies into a partnership shaping the future and driving new industries, he said./.
