This is affirmation by the South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Ha Chan Ho, in a farewell meeting with Dr Vu Tien Loc, President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) an the occasion of the Ambassador completing his mission in Vietnam.
At the meeting, Dr Vu Tien Loc appreciated the positive contributions of Ambassador Ha Chan Ho in promoting multi-faceted cooperation between Vietnam and Korea and wished Ambassador Ha Chan Ho – in any position – would also continue to make a positive contributions to promoting the friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
VCCI President also affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to promoting cooperation with South Korea and wants the two sides to further strengthen the economic trade, investment and trade cooperation and boost two-way trade volume between the two countries to develop in the future.
Ambassador Ha Chan Ho said that the results achieved in Vietnam – Korea cooperation recently have brought tangible benefits to the overall development of the two countries; he believed that Vietnam and Korea will continue to have new developments in the future. Ambassador Ha Chan Ho also said the Vietnamese government and VCCI had improvements to the investment environment, so in the future it will be more Korean businesses to invest in Vietnam.
On this occasion, Dr Vu Tien Loc awarded a medal for South Korean Ambassador Ha Chan Ho.
Vietnam and Korea officially established diplomatic relations on December 22, 1992. Currently, bilateral relations have been elevated to the strategic partnership. For South Korea, Vietnam is one of the key national partners in development cooperation. This is why the Korean government proposed the implementation of country partnership strategy (CPS) with Vietnam in 2011-2015 period associated with the Socio-Economic Development Strategy, Socio-Economic Development Plan and ODA Strategic Framework of Vietnam.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, two-way trade between the two countries has increased 26 times and investment has increased 100 times compared to the initial time. Currently, there are over 2,000 Korean businesses investing in Vietnam, attracting hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese employees.
In 2011, South Korea officially passed Japan to become the 2nd largest market in the world supplying goods to Vietnam (second only to China). However, in trading with this market, the balance of trade in Vietnam has very high deficit in recent years. In 2011, the trade deficit with South Korea was US$8.49 billion, up 36.8 percent compared to 2009 and more than doubles Vietnam’s exports to this market. In 2012, Vietnam’s trade deficit from Korea was up to US$15.5 billion.
The main import items of Vietnam from South Korea in recent years are computers, electronic products, machinery parts, fabrics, telephone, gas, textile materials and footwear, machinery, tools, spare parts, petroleum, iron and steel, CBU cars, auto parts & components and plastic materials.
Regarding exports, Vietnam exports to South Korea reached US$5.58 billion in 2012. The export items of Vietnam in recent years are crude oil, seafood, textiles, coal, wood & wood products, footwear, coffee, computers, electronic products & components, etc.
Bilateral economic cooperation occupied important position in Vietnam-Korea relations. Currently, the two countries have become important partners of each other. Korea has always been one of 10 most important partners of Vietnam, both in terms of investment and trade. By December 2012, South Korea was the third largest investor after Japan and Taiwan investing in Vietnam with a total investment of US$24.7 billion with 3,186 projects.
According to VCCI, in recent years, in order to promote cooperation and investment between the business communities of the two countries, Vietnam and Korea also signed a number of important agreements, such as the Cooperation Agreement between VCCI and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1991. In particular, the two sides agreed to establish Vietnam-Korea Committee of Economic Cooperation and Korea-Vietnam Committee of Economic Cooperation. VCCI Standing Vice President Hoang Van Dung is now the chairman of Vietnam-Korea Committee of Economic Cooperation.
In 2011 VCCI established the Vietnam-Korea Business Forum. The Forum is the official channel for the two countries’ business communities to propose opinions to the two Governments to build more favorable business environment and cooperation framework. VCCI President Vu Tien Loc is also Chairman of the Vietnam-Korea Partnership Organisation. The organisation is responsible for introducing to the people of Vietnam the information on the history, culture and life achievements in the Korea and introducing to the Korean people the history, culture and life of Vietnam and acting as bridge in economic cooperation, science and technology and cultural exchanges between the two countries…
Quynh Chi
Đăng ký: VietNam News
