Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Busan, the Republic of Korea, on the afternoon of December 10 (local time), beginning his three-day tour of the country where he will attend a commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Relations and take on a working visit.

At the airport, the Government leader was greeted by RoK Deputy Foreign Minister Shin Dong Ik, Vice Chairman of Busan city Son Sang Yong, and Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Huu Chi, among others.

Later on the day, the PM is scheduled to hold talks with President Park Geun Hye and participate in a dialogue with local businesses.

With the theme of “Building Trust, Bringing Happiness”, the commemorative summit is expected to focus on reviewing and drawing out development orientations for ASEAN-RoK dialogue relations.

The relations between Vietnam and the RoK have also been growing vigorously in all areas since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992 and the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in 2009.

The RoK is one of the leading economic partners of Vietnam. As of June 2014, the RoK had 3,687 investment projects worth 31.2 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking first in terms of project number and second in registered capital among foreign investors in the Southeast Asian country.

The Northeast Asian nation is Vietnam’s third largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching 27.5 billion USD in 2013, which was four-fold rise over the 2007 level and is expected to hit 70 billion USD by 2020.

Additionally, the RoK is the second largest bilateral donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, after Japan, with 1.2 billion USD of ODA committed for the 2012-2015 period.

It is the second largest market for Vietnam’s tourism with 750,000 visitors in 2013. It is also a major market for Vietnamese guest workers.-VNA