The Republic of Korea (RoK) is always one of the key trade partners of Vietnam, heard a recent workshop in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.

Furthering cooperative ties with the RoK will help Vietnam expand its global trade activities and attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) for its development, experts said.

The RoK is expected to pour over 30 billion USD in FDI into the Southeast Asian country by 2015, revealed the workshop.

Participants talked about orientations to embrace the future economic links between the RoK and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Vietnam is a member, for their mutual benefits.

They gave high estimations to the economic ties between the RoK and Thai Nguyen, referring to Samsung group’s current investment project as a premise for other Korean enterprises to inject more money in key industries in the locality.

Vietnam and the RoK officially elevated their relations to strategic partnership in October 2009.

Last year, two-way trade turnover between the two countries stood at 21.12 billion USD.

Both countries have set to lift their trade value to around 70 billion USD by 2020.-VNA