During the three-day visit at the invitation of RoK President Lee Myung Bak, the two sides will discuss measures to increase all-round cooperation, especially in economics, trade, investment, tourism, science and technology, culture and education, aiming to raise two-way trade to US$20 billion by 2015.

Vietnam and the RoK started carrying out private business activity in 1975 and later developing non-governmental relations until they established diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992. Bilateral relations have since developed strongly through the regular exchange of delegation visits.

During a RoK visit in 2001, President Tran Duc Luong and his host President Kim Dae-jung agreed to establish the Vietnam-RoK comprehensive partnership in the 21^st century.  

In a visit to Vietnam in October 2009, President Nguyen Minh Triet and RoK President Lee Myungbak agreed to raise the Vietnam-RoK relations to the strategic cooperative partnership, opening up a new era for fostering stronger bilateral relations.  
The RoK is one of Vietnam’s leading economic partners. By August 2011, it became the largest investor in Vietnam with more than 2,800 valid projects capitalised at US$23.3 billion. Two-way trade fetched US$12.7 billion in the period of January-September, 2011, a year-on-year increase of 44.5 percent.

Vietnam continues to be in the RoK’s priority list of official development assistance (ODA) recipients. It provided US$300 million in ODA last year and committed US$411.8 million this year, up 52 percent.

The RoK is the third largest market for Vietnam’s labour export, with about 60,000 Vietnamese nationals working in the country. Vietnam sent more than 8,200 workers to the RoK last year and 13,500 in the first eight months of this year.  
The RoK is also a potential tourism market of Vietnam. In 2010, about 496,000 Korean visitors travelled to Vietnam, up nearly 40 percent against 2009. Between January-September 2011, Vietnam welcomed 387,000 Korean holiday-makers.

Progress has been made in cultural and educational cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK. The two countries signed an agreement on cultural cooperation in August 1994, a memorandum of understanding on culture, sports and tourism cooperation in October 2008 and many other agreements on youth exchange and education.

They have also maintained regular exchanges of cultural and art delegations. In 2006 the RoK established its Cultural Centre in Hanoi. The Ministry of Education and Training has selected the RoK as a strategic information partner in education-training.

The RoK’s government, universities and organisations have funded projects to improve educational infrastructure and granted scholarships to Vietnamese students. Currently, more than 3,500 Vietnamese students are studying in the RoK.

The people-to-people friendship between the two countries has also been strengthened through the RoK-Vietnam Friendship Association and the Vietnam-RoK Friendship Association. The two countries have also established their friendship parliamentarians groups.