The visit by the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s National Assembly (NA) Speaker Kim Hyong-O is a new landmark in the development of the friendship and cooperation between the two countries and two parliaments, said Vietnam’s top legislator.

NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong made the statement in Hanoi on Nov. 15 while receiving Speaker Kim Hyong-O, following an official welcome ceremony for the RoK delegation.

Holding talks the same day, the two leaders affirmed their determination to implement well agreements already inked by the two parliaments and their desire to increase bilateral cooperation through the exchanges of information, working experiences and visits by legislative delegations of the two countries, thus contributing to the development of the Vietnam-RoK relationship for mutual benefit of their people.

RoK NA Speaker Kim congratulated Vietnam on its socio-economic development achievements and the country’s fulfilment of its role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council as well as its assumption of the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

Speaker Kim expressed his delight at the prosperity of the two countries’ relations in all fields.

He noted that around 500,000 people from the two countries visit each other annually and nearly 100,000 RoK citizens are working currently in Vietnam and the same number of Vietnamese are living and working in the RoK, which serve as a foundation for bilateral cooperation to continue growing.

The top RoK legislator affirmed that his country is ready to cooperate with Vietnam and the RoK’s NA will give priority to issues related to the relations of the two countries.

Speaker Kim also mentioned some specific measures the RoK plans to take to boost the friendship and bilateral ties, including the approval of state budget to activities supporting Vietnamese brides in the RoK; increasing exchanges between young people of the two countries; providing assistance to RoK’s entrepreneurs doing business in Vietnam and boosting cooperation in heavy and high-tech industries in line with both sides’ potential and demands.

Vietnam is the top priority partner of the RoK in terms of Official Development Assistance, Kim said, adding the two countries should work closely to bring two-way trade to 20 billion USD by 2015.

The RoK NA Speaker also urged further coordination at multilateral forums for the sake of peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world. He thanked Vietnam for supporting the peace process and denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsular.

On his part, NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong said that the Vietnam-RoK relations have rapidly and effectively developed, especially in the field of economics. By the end of February, the RoK was Vietnam’s leading investor with over 2,000 projects valued at 16 billion USD. Two-way trade reached a record 8.85 billion USD last year.

Trong thanked the RoK for having recognised Vietnam as a market economy and expressed his hope that the RoK, as one of the important dialogue partners of the AIPA, will actively cooperate and support Vietnam to fulfil its role as the AIPA Chair.

The same day, NA Chairman Trong hosted a banquet in honour of the RoK guests./.