At a joint media briefing with Lee Myung-Bak on the occasion of the RoK president’s three day official visit to Vietnam, which began October 20, President Nguyen Minh Triet told reporters that the new partnership was an expression of "mutual understanding and trust."
RoK is now Vietnam’s third-largest foreign investor, with a total investment of more than US$20 billion by the end of July 2009, and was last year the second-largest bilateral aid donor, and fourth-largest trading partner, with two-way commerce surging to nearly $10 billion.
Triet said the two sides expected a doubling of bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2015.
Lee agreed to recognize Vietnam's market economy status, according to comments from his office cited by RoK’s Yonhap news agency. The move could significantly improve protection for Vietnamese businesses and their products in trade with Korea, Yonhap said.
Vietnam is on RoK’s priority list of ODA recipients. In 2006, RoK government decided to increase its development aid to Vietnam to $100 million a year and its nonrefundable aid to $9.5 million a year for the 2006-2009 period.
Source: AFP, VNA |
E-mail to a friend 
Print version
To top
