During his reception on Thursday for Chairman of the Korea-Asia Friendship Foundation (KAFF) Choi Jae Sung, Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Xuan Anh expressed his delight at the fine development of the bilateral cooperation with South Korea over recent years.

KAFF Chairman Choi (left) and Secretary Anh

Secretary Anh remarked “Da Nang has to date established cooperative relationships with 5 localities in South Korea.  By the end of the first quarter of this year, the city had attracted 72 valid Korean projects.  Currently, there are 8 direct air routes connecting the city with Korean localities, with in total 82 flights per week.  Last year, Da Nang welcomed 447,797 Korean visitors, the highest number of international tourists to the city.  This figure is expected to increase by between 20% and 25% during this year.”

The city leader asked Chairman Choi to help Da Nang to appeal for Korean delegations to participate in a series of forthcoming activities in Da Nang to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Viet Nam and South Korea. 

He praised KAFF for its plans to build a training centre for Vietnamese teachers in Da Nang, as well as to fund Vietnamese-Korean bilingual children's books for local primary and junior high school pupils, in the near future.  He pledged that the local authorities would create very favourable conditions for KAFF to implement these 2 projects effectively in the city.

In reply, Chairman Choi said that his organisation is implementing many support programmes for overseas students and poor children in Asia.  In Da Nang, KAFF is completing the necessary administrative procedures for a 10 million USD project to build the training centre for Vietnamese teachers in Da Nang. 

Also at the meeting, Mr Choi shared some value experiences from South Korea of managing and training lecturers and students.