S. Korean president wraps up visit to Vietnam

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S. Korean president wraps up visit to Vietnam

(Xinhua) 17:17, September 11, 2013

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President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Geun-hye left Vietnam on Wednesday, wrapping up her five-day official visit to the country at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang.

Park's visit to Vietnam is an impetus to further boost the cooperative strategic partnership, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung during his meeting with Park.

During her stay, Park held talks with her Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang, paid a courtesy call to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong, and met with Prime Minister Dung and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.

At all meetings, both sides expressed their pleasure at the development of bilateral ties, which they first established in 1992.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, after 20 years of cooperation, two-way trade increased 44 times, reaching 21.12 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, three years ahead of their scheduled plan with 20 billion dollars by 2015. The two sides vowed to raise the figure to 70 billion dollars by 2020.

Investment growth rose by 250 times, people-to-people exchange up 80 times, and Vietnam became South Korea's largest official development assistance (ODA) recipient.

To date, South Korea has 3,392 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Vietnam, with total registered capital of 25.7 billion dollars, ranking fourth among 100 countries and regions investing in Vietnam. If investment capital through the third investor is calculated, South Korea is the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam, after Japan.

During her trip, Park witnessed the signing of seven cooperation agreements with Vietnamese counterparts on science- technology, environment, land management, labour, transport infrastructure, finance-banking, distribution and logistics.

The two sides also agreed to speed up negotiations for the signing of bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) so that it would be signed in 2014.

The Joint Statement released during Park's visit is believed to aim at further lifting the cooperative strategic partnership to a higher level. It also manifest that both are ready to engage in the roadmap going towards a mutual development in the future, reported local Vietnam Investment Review on Wednesday.

（Editor：WangXin、Hongyu）