Speaker of RoK National Assembly concludes official visit to Vietnam

Hanoi - Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Kim Jin-pyo and his wife left Hanoi on January 18, concluding their seven-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

While in Vietnam, the RoK leader paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum; paid a courtesy call to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh; and held talks with NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

At these meetings, the Vietnamese leaders said the two countries share a long-standing relationship and many common interests, complementary potential and strengths, and sound growth achievements in the past three decades. There remain potential and large room for the bilateral relations to develop further in the near future, they stressed.

The Vietnamese leaders urged the two sides to continue working together for the effective and practical development of the bilateral cooperation, particularly via increasing the exchange of high-level visits and meetings as well as collaboration between their ministries, sectors and localities.

They said the two countries should promote progress recorded in their parliamentary cooperation over the past time, and exchange and share experiences in legislation to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses and people living and working in the RoK and vice versa.

For his part, Kim lauded the rapid growth of the bilateral relationship, particularly the recent upgrade of the ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, and hoped that the two sides will build on the achievements of the bilateral relations in politics, economy, culture, people-to-people exchange, and defence-security.

The RoK highly valued Vietnam’s position in the region’s new strategies and initiatives, including the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative, the Speaker affirmed, pledging to make further contributions to the future growth of the RoK-Vietnam ties.

The Vietnamese and Korean leaders agreed to make efforts to lift two-way trade to 100 billion USD in 2023 and 150 billion USD by 2030 by capitalising on their existing bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements. They consented to step up cooperation in the fields of semiconductor, digital transformation, energy security, and just energy transition.

The Korean leader also visited the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, Ninh Binh province and Hai Phong city in the north. In Hanoi, he and Hue cut the ribbon to inaugurate the headquarters of the Vietnam - Korea Institute of Science and Technology, a symbol of sci-tech and innovation cooperation between the countries.

The strong foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow from the Republic of Korea (RoK) has been giving a significant push to Vietnam in the battle to move up the global value chain ladder and promote sustainable development.

The northern province of Bac Ninh and Gumi city of the Republic of Korea co-held a business forum in Bac Ninh city on October 20, aiming to intensify cooperation between the two localities as well as the two countries.

Nguyen Thi Tam Tinh has been selected by authorities in Seoul to become the first foreigner with Korean citizenship to receive the prestigious Daesang award in recognition of her dedication to charitable activities.

Vietnam saw 3.66 million foreign tourist arrivals last year, and those from the Republic of Korea (RoK) accounted for the largest proportion with over 965,000, or 26.4 per cent.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai received President of the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Samsung Electronics Park Hark Kyu in Hanoi on January 13 and suggested that the Korean firm expand its investment in Vietnam to tap opportunities from the sound partnership between the two countries in all fields.