Viet Nam vows to make active and responsible contributions to the ASEAN-Republic of Korea dialogue relations at the commemorative summit marking the 25^th anniversary of ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Relations, which is slated to be held in Busan on December 11-12.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will attend the commemorative summit and make a working visit to the RoK from December 10-12

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will attend the commemorative summit at the invitation of RoK President Park Geun-Hye. On the occasion, he will also make a working visit to the Northeast Asian country from December 10-12, aiming to boost the Vietnam-RoK strategic partnership.

The commemorative summit, which takes the theme of “Building Trust, Bringing Happiness”, is expected to focus on reviewing and drawing out development orientations for ASEAN-RoK dialogue relations in the time to come.

Both sides will maximise the ASEAN-RoK Free Trade Agreement and strive to conclude the negotiation on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement by the end of 2015. They will also foster two-way trade and investment, support small- and medium-sized enterprises and assist the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity and the Mekong-RoK Plan of Action for the 2014-2017 period.

The relations between Viet Nam and the RoK have also been growing vigorously in all areas since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992 and the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in 2009.

The Northeast Asian nation is Viet Nam’s third largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching 27.5 billion USD in 2013, which was four-fold the 2007 level and is expected to hit 70 billion USD by 2020. Viet Nam mainly imports computers, electronic products, components and machinery from the RoK while exporting garments, crude oil, and seafood.

Additionally, the RoK is the second largest bilateral donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, after Japan, with 1.2 billion USD of ODA committed for the 2012-2015 period.

The RoK is the second largest market for Viet Nam’s tourism with 750,000 visitors in 2013. It is also a major market for Vietnamese guest workers.

(Source: VNA)