Vietnam, RoK set sights on US$100 billion trade target next year

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on July 2 had a meeting with Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Woo Won-shik as part of the Vietnamese Government chief’s three-day visit to the East Asian nation.

The Korean NA leader welcomed PM Chinh and his Vietnamese high-ranking delegation’s official visit to the RoK- the first by a Vietnamese senior leader since the two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Woo Won-shik expressed his confidence that the visit will contribute to further deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries as a contribution to concretizing bilateral relations under the new framework.

He congratulated Vietnam on its recent socio-economic development achievements and assessed that both countries share many similarities in history, culture, economic development priorities such as digital transformation, green transformation, climate change response as well as complementarity in economics and human resources.

The Korean National Assembly will work closely with its Vietnamese counterpart to support the two governments in effectively and substantively implementing the Action Program to deploy the new relationship framework and step up cooperation in economic security and connecting human resources, Woo Won-shik told his guest.

In response, PM Chinh warmly congratulated Woo Won-shik on being elected as the Speaker of the 22nd National Assembly of the RoK and conveyed the congratulations and greetings of NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man and other Vietnamese senior leaders to Woo Won-shik.

Chinh expressed his confidence that the RoK will continue to witness stronger development and achieve more success in the time ahead in order to increasingly elevate its regional and international position, in which the Korean NA plays an important role.

Both sides held that Vietnam -RoK relations have grown steadily and substantially in a multitude of fields since the two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, with positive results in trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges.

The two leaders underlined the need to further strengthen cooperation between the two legislative bodies in the coming time by intensifying the exchange of parliamentary leadership delegations, leaders of specialized committees, young parliamentarians and parliamentarians of their parliaments as well as promoting the bridging role of the friendship parliamentary groups of each nation.

The efforts include sharing experience in building laws and institutions for sustainable development and digital and green transformation, while continuing to enhance the role of the two countries' legislatures in supporting the two governments to beef up bilateral cooperation, including completing the goal of bringing trade turnover to US$100 billion in 2025.

The Vietnamese Government leader proposed that the two legislatures cooperate closely to effectively deploy bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms; support and approve policies aimed at helping Vietnamese businesses engage more deeply in the global supply chain of Korean businesses.

This is addition to continuing to further open the door for Vietnam's key export products to the Korean market, including agricultural and aquatic products, and augment cooperation between the two countries in the fields of digital transformation and green transformation. The RoK will support Vietnam in training human resources in such areas as semiconductors, and artificial intelligence, etc.

The Korean NA speaker asked the Vietnamese Government to pay attention to and create favorable conditions for Korean businesses to run investment smoothly in Vietnam.

Hailing the positive contributions of the overseas community in each country, Won-shik consented to join the Vietnamese National Assembly in promoting the Korean and Vietnamese Governments in protecting and helping the overseas communities from the two countries ensure their stable lives in their country of residence.

This is along with strengthening cross cultural exchanges, tourism cooperation, and locality-to-locality and people-to-people exchanges, thereby enhancing understanding between the two peoples and creating a foundation for developing sustainable relations between the two nations.

Also at the meeting, the leaders compared notes on regional and international issues of mutual concern, and agreed to coordinate and support each other at international organizations.

PM Pham Minh Chinh took the occasion to convey NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man's invitation to visit Vietnam soon to NA Speaker Woo Won-shik, with the invitation being graciously accepted.