The 6^th ASEAN Connectivity Forum, the only forum on investment in ASEAN countries, opened on Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea.

The Republic of Korea’ s New Southern Policy aims for a closer relationship with ASEAN in trade, investment, culture, tourism and people to people partnerships. — VNS Photo My Ha

Home to 640 million people, ASEAN has a GDP of US$ 2.8 trillion and average annual growth of 5%. ASEAN is currently the world’s fifth-largest economic power, playing an increasingly important role in the broader global economy. The region is the second largest trading partner of the Republic of Korea (RoK).

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Lee Hyuk, Secretary General of ASEAN-Korea Centre said, "ASEAN is Korea’s third largest investment destination with investment of 5 billion$ last year."

According to RoK President Moon Jae-in, Korea’s New Southern Policy looks to deepen the country’s engagement with ASEAN and bridge the economic gap between Korea and the region.

The New Southern Policy sets a target to reach 200 billion$ in bilateral trade by 2020, and to double the annual ASEAN-RoK Fund to 14 million$ by 2019.

The "ASEAN - Korea Infrastructure Fund" is expected to raise 100 million$ by 2022 to promote mutual co-operation in the four key areas of transportation, energy, water resources and smart cities.

"Korea is currently Viet Nam’s top investor at 61.5 billion$," Nguyen Viet Cuong, Deputy Head of the Statistics and Information Division from the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, told Viet Nam News. "The relationship between Korea and Viet Nam has been developing well and we see steady growth of registered investment of 5 billion$ a year."

Viet Nam calls on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment to upgrade the country’s ailing 3,000km plus railway system at the forum.

The forum held panels to discuss prospective issues on transportation, energy and PPP programmes in Viet Nam. Viet Nam’s delegation made presentations in all of panels.

Speaking on how to be eligible for international funding for the infrastructure projects, Jesper Pedersen, Principal Procurement Specialist from Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that many ASEAN countries are developing countries and are eligible for ADB loans.

"But we cannot finance whole projects," he said. "We can only finance up to 25% of the projects."

The rest of the funding, according to successful projects in Viet Nam, comes from the Government and the private sector.

"To develop infrastructure projects, we need more energy including thermal and recyclable energy," Tran Dong Phong, Vice General Director from MPI told Viet Nam News.

He presented Viet Nam’s plan for energy development by 2030, in which coal-fired energy is expected to reach 36,000MW by 2020 and be doubled to 75,000 by 2030.

On concern over environmental issues of thermal power plants, Phong said, "With new technology, called ultra-super critical (USC), we can reduce the thermal power plant waste to one fourth of the old technology waste. Currently there are three thermal projects with Korean company POSCO using advanced and updated USC for coal-fired power plants."

Tran Viet Dung, head of the PPP office under MPI said that Viet Nam is still in its infant stage in building smart cities.

Tran Viet Dung, head of PPP Office under MPI calls for more effective ASEAN - Korea cooperation using internet-based technology. — VNS Photo My Ha

"Binh Duong, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City have been chosen to start towards a smart city plan, but we need to build a common e-platform to work out necessary criteria, define resources and choose a starting point," he said.

In his presentation, Dung called on the participants to build a data resource platform and key connecting points in member countries for more effective future co-operation.

"We are in the 6^th year now, so it is time to review the past 5 years and make our annual meeting more effective and resourceful for everyone."

"Let’s have smart connectivity by sharing and updating information online so that we can build smart cities in each of the ASEAN countries more effectively," Tran Viet Dung told the forum.

The 4-day forum concluded on Thursday.

(Source: VNS)