The upcoming visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) by Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue will create a new momentum for the flourishing Vietnam-RoK strategic cooperative partnership (Photo: VNA)

The upcoming visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) by Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue will create a new momentum for the flourishing Vietnam-RoK strategic cooperative partnership, towards the 30th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic ties next year.

NA Chairman Hue is set to begin his official visit to the RoK on December 12 at the invitation of Speaker of the National Assembly of the RoK Park Byeong-seug.

Vietnam set up diplomatic ties with the RoK on December 22, 1992. In the nearly three decades, the RoK has been among Vietnam's leading important partners.

The countries’ relationship was elevated to strategic cooperative partnership in October 2009 on the occasion of the Vietnam visit by then RoK President Lee Myung-bak.

Regarding the economic field, the RoK is among leading important partners of Vietnam, ranking first in terms of investment, with total registered capital worth 72.35 billion USD and 9,100 valid projects.

The East Asian country is Vietnam's second biggest official development assistance (ODA) provider, with 1.5 billion USD in the 2016-20, extended to 2030; and ranks second in terms of trade as bilateral trade hit 48.5 billion USD in eight months of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 17.4 percent.

The RoK is also the second key labour export market of Vietnam and Vietnamese labourers represent the second largest group of foreign workers in the RoK, with about 48,000.

The RoK has emerged as a major source of holidaymakers in Vietnam over the years. In 2019, about 4.2 million Korean tourists travelled to Vietnam, up 23.1 percent, and 550,000 Vietnamese came to the RoK, surging 21.9 percent against the previous year.

The two countries have signed numerous cooperation agreements in culture-art, sports, youth exchanges and education.

NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and NA Speaker of the RoK Park Byeong-seug join virtual talks (Photo: VNA)

The RoK government and businesses have supported Vietnam’s COVID-19 fight, especially in vaccine and medicine, along with pharmaceutical development and health care capacity improvement.

The RoK supported more than 1 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam and is keen to offer medical assistance to Vietnam in the time to come.

Furthermore, Vietnam and the RoK have enhanced cooperation in the fields of agriculture, jurisdiction, science-technology, people-to-people exchanges and collaboration between the countries’ localities.

In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Seoul, the RoK's NA Speaker Park Byeong-seug said the upcoming visit by NA Chairman Hue will deepen the countries’ bilateral relations on multiple levels: between Heads of State, Speakers, and parliamentarians.

He affirmed that Vietnam is a pivot country in the RoK’s New Southern Policy.

During his trip, the Vietnamese NA Chairman will affirm Vietnam’s stance on support for the elevation of the two countries’ strategic cooperative partnership to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for External Relations Vu Hai Ha told reporters prior to the visit./.