Over the last 20 years since Vietnam and Korea established official diplomatic relations (12/1992-12/2012), the relations between the two countries have grown stronger and stronger. Korea is now the second largest investor in Vietnam and also a major partner, contributing greatly to the development of Vietnam.
Vietnam and Korea have achieved very good development with practical special achievements in the field of investment and trade cooperation.
December 12th 1992 marks the time Vietnam and Korea joint declaration on the establishment of the ambassadorial level diplomatic relations. This is an event of great significance, opening a new page in the history of relations between the two countries, expressing the will and aspirations of the people of the two countries towards the future, jointly building friendship and cooperation relationship for the common prosperity of the two peoples. Politically, in the 20 years of diplomatic relations, the two countries have twice upgraded relations to "comprehensive partnership in the 21st Century" in August 2001 and further upgraded to "strategic cooperative partnership" in October 2009, which means the assertation and determination of the leaders of the two countries to bring the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Korea to a new strategic level across all sectors.
Since 1992, the two sides have exchanged more than 22 senior trade union leaders of the Party, State, Government and National Assembly. In addition, leaders of the two countries also frequently have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of international fora. Foreign relations and cooperation between ministries, branches and localities in the two countries are increasingly linked. Specifically, until now, more than 30 provinces, cities and districts of the two countries have established relations of cooperation, including the big cities of Vietnam like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang and the major cities of South Korea such as Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu and so on.
Economic cooperation between the two countries has strong growth, particularly in the fields of trade, investment and development aid. Over 20 years, South Korea has risen to become a leading economic partner of Vietnam. Vietnam is increasingly becoming an important partner of South Korea. Currently South Korea is the 2nd largest investor in Vietnam. Specifically, as of October 20th 2012, Korea had 3,134 valid projects with a total registered capital of US$24.480 billion, increased by hundreds of times compared to the time the two countries established diplomatic relations (in 1992, South Korea had 7 projects with a total registered capital of US$100 million). Most major Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, POSCO, SK, Lotte, Kumho-Asiana etc have been in Vietnam.
In the commercial sector, South Korea is the 4th largest trade partner of Vietnam. Bilateral trade volume in 2011 reached US$17.89 billion, an increase of 36 times compared with US$500 million in 1992. Bilateral trade turnover will soon reach US$20 billion and aims to reach US$30 billion in the coming years. From August 2012, the two countries started negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). If signed, this Agreement will create new incentives to promote economic cooperation between the two countries more strongly developed in the future.
South Korea is also the most important partner of Vietnam in the field of development cooperation and the 2nd biggest bilateral ODA donor of Vietnam, Vietnam is the largest recipient of Korea’s ODA . Since the start of non-refundable aid to Vietnam in 1993 with a capital of US$100,000, so far Korean aid to Vietnam has reached a total of approximately US$150 million. Korea started to provide preferential loans to Vietnam in 1995 with US$5 million scale and continued to expand scale, by 2006 it had reached US$100 million / year, in 2008 it increased to US$200 million / year (2008-2011) and expected to up to US$250 million / year (2012-2015).
On the export collaboration and workforce training, the Korea is the 2nd largest labor export market of Vietnam and Vietnam is the second largest labor export to South Korea. From 1993 until now, there are over 120,000 workers from Vietnam to Korea to work, of which about 52,000 people in the trainee programme and 70,000 people in the programme of Employment Permit System (EPS - applied since 2004). There are about 75,000 Vietnamese workers in Korea. South Korea is also actively supporting Vietnam in vocational training and labor protection ...
In the field of cross-cultural cooperation, according to incomplete statistics, there are more than 130,000 Koreans working and living in Vietnam and more than 120,000 Vietnamese people living, working and studying in South Korea this is the important bridge to reinforce and strengthen friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation between the two sides. Besides, every year many cultural exchange activities, arts and sports are held regularly at each other back and forth between the two countries. According to preliminary statistics, until now, in Korea, there are more than 100 restaurants and in Vietnam there are hundreds of Korean restaurants. This is the vivid expression of the mutual understanding between the two cultures imbued with national identity Vietnam - Korea.
In addition to the positive side, visible in the economic, trade-investment cooperation, the images of Vietnam and Korean in each country’s people are gradually cohesion than ever. If mentioning Vietnam, the Korean people will think of the image "Halong Bay", one of 7 wonders of the world and "Pho" the national dish of Hanoi. In contrast, referring to Korea, many Vietnamese people especially the youth think about the Korean waves like drama, K-pop and Korean Fashion. Also, many people do not know that between the two countries each week there are more than 100 direct flights, 2,700 Korean businesses in Vietnam create jobs for 500,000 Vietnamese employees, 13 universities training Korean language faculty with 2,500 students.
In the future, the partnership and practical economic effect will certainly be maintained and developed to a new level. Vietnam's leaders are very determined to reform the overall economy with 3-pillar reform which is to restructure public investment, financial and banking sector and state-owned enterprises to develop economy, put 3 goals which are to train high-quality human resources, perfecting the socialist rule of law (amend constitution and the Land Law), improve infrastructure development to become industrialized and modernized country in 2020. This is the premise for the two parties to cooperate with the new step, because South Korea is one of the few countries in the world with a comprehensive renovation, the effective footprint "miracle Korea river". Thereby, Vietnam through diplomatic channels can study and exchange valuable experiences from this country which are overcoming the economic crisis in Asia in 1997 and completing financial reform ...
Also, in the next time, the two sides will also have a lot of opportunities for cooperation in the field of human resource training. Specifically, the senior officials of Vietnam will participate in the leadership capacity training program by sector in relevant agencies of Korea in the framework of "strategic training program for staff resources of Vietnam ". Also, as suggested by senior leaders of Vietnam, the two countries are discussing plans to establish Institute of Science and Technology Vietnam modeled Korea Institute of Science and (KIST ) - the agency's role in leading the development of science and technology in Korea.
On the basis of understanding and mutual trust and practical results in many aspects of economic and trade - investment, diplomatic - cultural society .., Vietnam-Korea relation during next time will surely reach new milestones, meet the expectations of the people and the business community both countries.
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