The Republic of Korea’s media has highlighted the significance of  President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Vietnam, saying it reflects his initiative to expand the RoK’s economic market around the world.

The Republic of Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (Photo: Yonhap/VNA)

President Moon Jae-in embarks on a seven-day trip to Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from March 22-28, with Vietnam his first destination. 

“Vietnam is a young, dynamic country with a 100 million population with an average age of just 30,” JoongAng Daily said. “Taking pride in amazing growth as high as 6.8 percent last year — second only to China in the world — Vietnam is our third largest export market following China and the United States.”

The newspaper also mentioned Vietnam as the RoK’s potential security partner.

Moon came to Vietnam last November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in central Da Nang city, it recalled. His State visit to Vietnam only four months later shows his determination to improve Seoul’s relations with Hanoi, it noted.

Moon Jae-in and his spouse are on a State visit to Vietnam from March 22-24. The visit is made at the invitation of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang.

Vietnam and the RoK set up diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992. The two countries elevated the bilateral relationship to the level of strategic partnership in 2009.

According to Vietnam’s General Department of Customs, two-way trade between Vietnam and the RoK hit 61.5 billion USD in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 41.3 percent. 

Vietnam’s exports to the RoK reached 14.8 billion USD, while its imports from the East Asian country stood at 46.7 billion USD, up 30 percent and 45.3 percent against 2016, respectively. 

The two countries have set a target of 100 billion USD in two-way trade by 2020.

The RoK was the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam last year, just behind Japan, with total registered capital of 8.49 billion USD.

In terms of accumulative investment, the country ranked first among 125 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with total investment capital of 57.7 billion USD by the end of December 2017.-VNA