Vietnamese Ambassador to the Republic of Korea (RoK) Nguyen Vu Tu granted an interview to a reporter from the Viet Nam News Agency about Viet Nam-RoK relations on the occasion of the RoK’s President Moon Jae-in’s State visit to Viet Nam from March 22-24. 

Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tu affirmed that since the two nations established diplomatic relations 25 years ago (December 22, 1992), the two nations have gained a number of achievements in all fields from politics, defense, security, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchange and especially economics.　

The RoK is the largest investor in Viet Nam with the total capital of US$57.6 billion (as of the end of 2017) and ranks second in trade relations (US$61.5 billion in 2017).　

In 2017, a total number of 2.4 million visitors from the RoK travelled to Viet Nam.　

The Ambassador highlighted that this is the first official visit made by President 　Moon Jae-in to Viet Nam and the second visit to Viet Nam after the APEC Economic Leaders' Week in November last year.　

Mr. Tu expected that the visit will gain huge success, consolidate political trust between their high-ranking leaders and tighten their people’s friendship.　

It also creates an opportunity for the two nations’ leaders to review outcomes over the recent 25 years and initiative orientations for their relationship in the next 25 years, he added.　

He hoped that the visit will help increase exchange activities between ministries and　agencies,　enhance cooperation in trade and investment on　the basis of mutual benefits as well as culture, education, tourism, labor and science-technology.

As the Viet Nam-RoK Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) came into effect in 2015, the two nations need to expand trade and investment scales, striving to raise the trade value to US$100 billion by 2020 in line with promoting trade balance through boosting exports to the RoK, suggested the Ambassador.　

He asked the two sides to encourage the RoK’s large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in Viet Nam in such areas as infrastructure, high-technology,　development　of auxiliary industry and facilitate Vietnamese businesses' participation in the RoK’s global production and supply chain. 　

Mr. Tu required the two sides to join hands in effectively realizing reached agreements, particularly　a framework agreement on credits from the Economic Development Co-operation Fund　(EDCF) for the 2016-2020 period, worth US$1.5 billion and　an agreement to establish the Viet　Nam – Korea Institute of Science and Technology (V-KIST), valued US$12 billion as well as agreements in labor cooperation.　

He proposed creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese students to receive more scholarships to the RoK and more Korean students to study in Viet Nam.　

The Ambassador expected the two nations will expand cooperation between organizations to support around 150,000 Vietnamese and Korean people living in the two nations.　

He asserted that the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK will actively coordinate with the RoK’s relevant agencies and localities to enhance people-to-people exchange and set up programs on Vietnamese for overseas Vietnamese in the RoK.

VGP