President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Geun-hye is scheduled to start her four-day state visit to Viet Nam to strengthen strategic partnership and enhance mutual confidence, cooperation and understanding between the two countries.
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RoK's President Park Geun-hye
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This is President Park’s first visit to Viet Nam since she took office in February this year, and the fifth one by a RoK President since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1992.
The Korean leader is expected to hold talks with President Truong Tan Sang and have meetings with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, PM Nguyen Tan Dung and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.
During over two-decades of ties, Viet Nam and the RoK have flourished especially following the establishment of strategic partnership in 2009.
The RoK ranks fourth out of 98 foreign investors in Viet Nam with 3,392 projects.
Viet Nam is the ninth largest export market of the RoK. Two-way trade in 2012 reached US$21.12 billion.
In this January-July period, the number touched US$15.1 billion, a 40% rise year-on-year.
In recent years the RoK has come only second to Japan as the country to offer the most official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam, its largest ODA recipient.
The RoK committed to supply Viet Nam with US$1.2 billion from its Economic Development Cooperation Fund in the 2012-2015 period, up US$200 million against the 2008-2011 period.
The RoK also has the second highest number of citizens travelling to Viet Nam. In the first seven months of this year, 439,100 came, a 4.3%increase over the same period last year.
The two sides have signed their cooperation agreement in culture and a memorandum of understanding in art, sports and tourism partnerships.
The RoK is Viet Nam’s second largest labor export market, receiving 68,000 Vietnamese guest workers under its Employment Permit System (EPS) program.
Cooperation among localities in both countries has been expanded with cooperative relations seen between Hanoi and Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City and Bussan city, and Da Nang and Deagu./.