Hanoi (VNA) – Vice President andSecretary General of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Don Tuan Phong presented the Medal for Peace and Friendship among Nations to outgoingAmbassador of the Republic of Korea (RoK) to Vietnam Lee Hyuk in recognition ofhis remarkable contributions to promoting the two countries’ friendship andcooperation.

Phong congratulated the ambassador on hissuccessful working tenure in Vietnam and recognised his active efforts toenhance cooperative relations between Vietnamese and Korean ministries,departments and localities over the past two years, helping further deepen theVietnam-RoK strategic cooperative partnership.

The ambassador also supported activities of theVUFO and the Vietnam-RoK Friendship Association in general as well aspeople-to-people exchanges in particular, Phong said, adding that Lee Hyuk hadvisited many places and met with a lot of people in Vietnam to gain deepunderstanding about the Southeast Asian country.

Phong expressed his hope that the ambassador, inany position, will make more contributions to reinforcing and developing thefriendly cooperative relations between Vietnam and the RoK.

Lee Hyuk said he is honoured to receive themedal, noting that during his working tenure in Vietnam, he had witnessed thestrong development of Vietnam-RoK economic cooperation and people-to-peopleexchanges. In particular, he had the chance to accompany President Moon Jae-inand his spouse on a three-day State visit to Vietnam in March this year.

He added that he will take up a new position asSecretary General of the RoK-ASEAN Centre from April 15, and pledged to do hisutmost to step up the relations between the RoK and ASEAN, and particularlybetween the RoK and Vietnam.

Vietnam and the RoK established diplomatic tieson December 22, 1992. The two countries set up their comprehensive strategicpartnership in August 2001, and agreed to lift the ties to a strategiccooperative partnership in October 2009.

The Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement, whichbecame effective on December 20, 2015, has opened a new chapter in bilateraleconomic ties. The RoK is currently oneof Vietnam’s most important economic partners, ranking first in terms ofinvestment, and second in development cooperation, trade and tourism.

Two-way trade jumped from 500 million USD in1992 to 61.5 billion USD in 2017, of which 14.8 billion USD came from Vietnam’sexports, up 30 percent from the previous year, and 46.7 billion USD from theSoutheast Asian country’s imports, a year-on-year increase of 45.3 percent.

The two countries are working to raise theturnover to 100 billion USD by 2020.-VNA