Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has pledged to create favourable conditions for Republic of Korea (RoK) firms to boost cooperation and technology transfer in Vietnam.

The RoK is the first country to cooperate with Vietnam in building a telecommunications network and providing telecom services since the 1950s, said Son at a conference on information technology cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK in Hanoi on November 21.

He believes the two countries’ cooperation will develop strongly in the future, especially in sharing experience in State management, human resource development and information technology (IT).

RoK Minister of Public Administration and Security, Maeng Hyung Kyu, highlighted the close cooperation between the two countries, especially in IT.

Within the framework of the RoK short-term IT training programme, Vietnam has received the most invitations, he said.

He also revealed that an Internet access centre with 300,000 USD of RoK funding was opened at Thai Nguyen University in the mountainous northern province of Thai Nguyen, making Vietnam the first country that the RoK has helped build two IT centres with the first one set up in 2011.

The RoK side suggested the two countries build an IT international cooperation centre to build development projects in the future.

The same day, a Vietnam-RoK ICT business forum was held, attracted 150 delegates from the two countries.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Minh Hong, affirmed that more cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and RoK businesses have taken place.

According to Nguyen Thu Giang, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Software and IT Services, Vietnam earned 13 million USD from its IT industry.

The country is expected to provide 1 million people with IT training by 2020, she said.

The RoK delegation is in Vietnam for the 20th anniversary of Vietnam-RoK diplomatic ties.-VNA