Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh on Monday played host to a delegation of government officials and businesspeople from South Korea’s Changwon City, led by Mr Kim Jong Hwan, the Head of the city’s Security and Public Administration Division.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh (right) receiving Mr Kim Jong Hwan, the Head of the Changwon City Security and Public Administration Division

Vice Chairman Minh affirmed Da Nang’s stance in developing such key economic sectors as tourism, trade, logistics, and information technology. In the coming time, priority would be given to hi-tech and innovations, Mr Minh added.

In the first half of this year alone, Da Nang’s exports to South Korea was estimated at 17 million US$, up 14.5% against the same period last year, whilst the city’s total imports from this East Asian country climbed by 10.6% to hit 36.5 million US$.

To date, Da Nang has been home to about 144 South Korean-invested projects totalling more than 600 million US$.

Up to now, Da Nang has established bilateral relations with 5 South Korean localities, namely Daegu, Changwon, Hawaseong, Seoul and Gyeongsan. Noticeably, the bilateral ties with Changwon have developed in a specific and practical manner through successful exchange programmes.

The host pointed out that Da Nang and Changwon share many similarities in terms of geographical position, population, infrastructure, and development strategies for tourism, hi-tech and environmental protection, which favour the development of bilateral cooperative ties for mutual benefit.

Vice Chairman Minh also highlighted the signicance of promoting exchanges of experience between the 2 localities in developing such aspects as transport infrastructure, trade, industry, urban planning and environmentally friendly city building, hereby helping to deepen their comprehensive cooperation.

In reply, Mr Kim Jong Hwan hoped that the 2 localities would enhance their cooperative ties through exchanges of delegations at all levels, and the implementation of cooperation programmes in the aspects of administration, economy, education, and cultural and arts exchanges.

The South Korean official revealed that the Changwon government will consider setting up a Korean language library at the Da Nang University of Foreign Languages and Studies so as to facilitate Vietnamese students to learn Korean and access job opportunities at South Korean-invested companies operating in the city.

The guest also affirmed that the Changwon government would deepen bilateral tourism cooperation with Da Nang. In addition, he asked for help from the Da Nang authorities to faciliate South Korean businesses to operate in local appropriate aspects.

Changwon is considered as the ‘Silicon Valley of South Korea’ with the operation of a wide range of multinational corporations such as Doosan Heavy, LG, Samsung and GM.

In 2014, Da Nang and Changwon jointly entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening friendship and cooperation towards their sustainable development.