An overview of the meeting

The proposal was made by Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong while hosting a reception on May 20 for Mayor of Daegu Kwon Young-jin and Gyeongsangbuk province’s Deputy Governor Yoon Yong-jin.

Phong said that HCM City always attaches importance to and wants to develop effectively and comprehensively the Vietnam-RoK strategic cooperative partnership as well as cooperative ties with Korean localities.

He expressed his belief that with positive cooperation in tourism over the years and the new visa policy that the RoK is applying on citizens of Vietnam and specially those in major cities such as HCM City, Hanoi and Da Nang, tourism collaboration between Vietnam and the RoK as well as HCM City and Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk will further develop.

For his part, Kwon spoke highly of HCM City’s support to Daegu city to conduct cooperation activities in the city in many areas, especially culture and tourism.

He said that the RoK delegation’s visit to the city aims to promote tourism of the two localities, expressing his hope to expand partnership with local travel firms.

Meanwhile, Yoon showed his impression at HCM City’s tourism potential, adding that he hoped for stronger cooperation with the city, especially in culture and tourism.

He invited HCM City’s leaders to attend the Gyeongju Global Cultural Festival in Gyeongsangbuk in October.

In 2018, 934,000 Korean holidaymakers visited HCM City, up 73 percent over the previous year, making the RoK the second largest tourism market of the city.

As of April 2019, the RoK is the third largest foreign investor among 106 countries and territories investing in the city with 1,600 projects worth over 5 billion USD. Trade between the city and the RoK hit 4.7 billion USD in the year.-VNA