Party General Secretary leaves HN for RoK

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

The visit aims to strengthen political understanding and trust between the two countries’ high-ranking leaders as well as promote cooperation between the two ruling parties and the friendship between the two peoples.

Since Viet Nam and the RoK set up diplomatic ties in 1992 and bilateral ties were upgraded to a strategic cooperative partnership five years ago, their relations have developed in a strong, comprehensive and intensive manner.

The RoK has been one of the top economic partners of Viet Nam. As of June this year, the country ranked first among foreign investors in Viet Nam with 3,687 projects and came second in terms of registered capital with US$ 31.2 billion, doubling the 2008 figure.

The RoK is Vietnam’s third largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching US$ 27.5 billion last year, quadrupling the 2007 level. The two countries set to raise bilateral trade to US$ 70 billion by 2020 and are actively finalising negotiations towards the early signing of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The RoK is also the second largest donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam, after Japan, with a committed amount of US$ 1.2 billion for the 2012-2015 period.

As many as 120,000 Vietnamese are living and working in the RoK, including 50,000 Vietnamese-Korean couples. The RoK community in Viet Nam also numbers around 120,000./. - VNA