Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) enjoyed another year of successful cooperation in 2014, affirmed Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Pham Huu Chi.

In his interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the lunar New Year, the ambassador said Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s State visit and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s working trip to the RoK to attend the ASEAN-RoK Summit contributed importantly to lifting the bilateral ties to a new height.

The diplomat described economic cooperation as the highlight in the two countries’ relationship, with the RoK becoming Vietnam’s largest investor with a total capital of 37 billion USD, and two-way trade reaching 28 billion USD.

He was confident that the bilateral relations will thrive further in 2015 and the goal of 70 billion USD in two-way trade by 2020 is quite within reach.

Regarding Vietnam’s labour export to the RoK, Ambassador Chi said there is a good possibility that a memorandum of understanding on receiving Vietnamese guest workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS) programme would be extended. Under the MoU, around 6,000 Vietnamese workers were sent to the RoK in 2014.

He went on to say that there are now 60,000 Vietnamese brides in the RoK, most of whom enjoy happy marriage. However, he also recalled the murder of two Vietnamese brides in recent months, saying that the Vietnamese embassy had worked hard with involved offices of the RoK to deal with the problems and prevent similar cases.

On the threshold of the traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) – the largest festival of Vietnamese, the 130,000-strong Vietnamese community in the RoK is busily preparing for the celebration, the ambassador said.

He added that the embassy is also coordinating with the Overseas Vietnamese Association in holding Tet programmes at all big cities in the country.-VNA