Vietnam, RoK enjoy deeper strategic cooperative partnership

Seoul (VNA) – Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Lee Nak-yon and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh expressed their pleasure at the growing strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries during their meeting in Seoul on November 21.

The two sides exchanged specific measures to enhance political trust and cooperative relations in the coming time via maintaining high-level delegation exchanges and implementing effectively existing cooperation mechanisms and dialogues such as the Vietnam-RoK strategic dialogue on diplomacy, security and defense, and the bilateral free trade agreement to increase two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2020.

They agreed to beef up cooperation in other fields such as culture, education, tourism, labour, and people-to-people exchanges while actively supporting and ensuring safety and legitimate rights for citizens in the respective countries, and enhancing coordination at multilateral forums.

Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh thanked the RoK’s Government for providing one million USD to support flood victims in the central part of Vietnam.

He welcomed Korean businesses to increase investments in Vietnam in high technology, environmental protection, processing and manufacturing industry, support industry, renewable energy, infrastructure development, and hi-tech agriculture.

Binh invited Korean firms to involve in the process of equitising State-owned enterprises, restructuring commercial banks, and developing special administrative-economic zones in Vietnam.

He proposed the RoK facilitate the entry of Vietnamese strong products to the market, especially agro-forestry-fishery products, as well as support Vietnam to join the RoK’s global supply chains and provide non-refundable aid packages for technical assistance, human resources training, agricultural and rural development, and energy safety.

The official urged the two countries to soon sign a support agreement in civil affairs and trade and extending a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on supplying and receiving Vietnamese workers to the RoK under the Employment Permit System (EPS), which will be invalid in May 2018.

He asked the RoK to apply visa exemption and make it easier for Vietnamese tourists to enter the RoK in addition to increasing direct flights between the two countries. He suggested enhancing coordination in regional and international affairs of mutual concerns, especially keeping peace and stability in the Asian-Pacific region.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon spoke highly of the two countries’ relations after 25 years of establishing diplomatic ties. He stressed that the RoK’s Government attaches great importance to developing strategic cooperative partnership with Vietnam and will direct all relevant ministries and departments to implement effectively the bilateral cooperation agreements.

The same day, Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh received President of the RoK-Vietnam Friendship Association Choi Young-joo, during which he proposed the association continue coordinating with the Vietnam-RoK Friendship Association and the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK to promote the two countries’ cooperation, especially in economics and people-to-people exchanges.

He later met with representatives from the RoK’s leading businesses, including the SK Group, the KB Financial Group, and the Maeil Business Newspaper.-VNA