Seoul (VNA) – The media in the Republic ofKorea (RoK) has highlighted the visit of Vietnamese National AssemblyChairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan with various articles featuring the relationshipbetween the two countries and their future prospects.

Korean daily newspaper of Busan on December 4 ran anarticle written by the Vietnamese top legislator noting that the relationshipbetween Vietnam and the RoK, which began nearly 900 years ago, is developingcomprehensively on the basis of historical connectivity, cultural similarities,economic growth support, and efforts of the two governments and peoples.

After 26 years since the establishment of bilateraldiplomatic relations, the two sides have become important partners of eachother.

RoK’s Yonhap news agency posted a photo of theVietnamese NA leader with the caption saying that the leader arrived in the RoKon December 4 for a four-day visit at the invitation of Speaker of the RoKNational Assembly Moon Hee-sang.

Earlier, the Korea Herald online newspaper ran anarticle entitled “Vietnamese top parliamentarian’s Korea visitheralds bright bilateral partnership” by Dr. Kim Hyun-jae, Director of the VietnamResearch Institute at Youngsan University.

It noted that her visit occurs as Hanoi and Seoulcelebrate 10 years of Vietnam-RoK Strategic Cooperative Partnership(2009-2019). Since the establishment of diplomatic relations on December 22,1992, bilateral relations have gone from strength to strength in everycategory. 

On the parliamentary level, bilateral exchanges andcooperation on the international stage are vibrant through different channels,particularly their parliamentary friendship associations, it said.

The RoK is the top foreign investor in Vietnam withtotal investment capital reaching 62.12 billion USD in October, while comingsecond in official development assistance to Vietnam after Japan, and second intourism and commerce volumes after China. 

Vietnam is the RoK’s third-largest export market after China and the US, and isforecast to surpass the US by 2020. Bilateral trade turnover has steadilyincreased to 61.5 billion USD last year, 117 times the initial amount of 500million USD in 1992. Bilateral trade turnover reached 55.45 billion USD fromJanuary through October. At the current rate, bilateral trade volume isexpected to top 100 billion USD by 2020, said the article.

Some 191,000 Vietnamese are currently studying, working and living in the RoK.There are more than 150,000 Koreans living in Vietnam, and more than 70,000Vietnamese women married to Korean men. 

Some 2.5 million RoK tourists travelled to Vietnam last year, while 300,000Vietnamese visited the RoK, it noted. 

Vietnam’s population of 100 million people, 60 percentof whom are under the age of 35, provides a strategic base for manpower forforeign companies. This has been buttressed by the country’s steady and highgrowth rate of around 6 percent over the last several years, and an inflationrate below 5 percent. The foreign exchange rate has also remained stablewithout abnormal fluctuations.

To elicit RoK investment, the Vietnamese government provides various incentivesand business-friendly conditions, with a view to nurturing its infrastructureconstruction, high tech, auxiliary and energy industries, among others.Improving the state of the country’s infrastructure, equitization ofstate-owned enterprises, liberalization and simplification of bureaucracy arehigh on the agenda for Hanoi. 

The RoK media underlined that the RoK visit of theVietnamese top legislator will help further promote the growing ties betweenthe two countries to new levels.-VNA