PM Phuc hosts new RoK, Mozambican diplomats

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomes newly-appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Korea (RoK) to Vietnam Kim Do-hyun.

Concerning the Vietnam-RoK ties, PM Phuc suggested the two countries’ agencies step up cooperation in multiple fields and maintain regular exchange delegations at all levels, thus laying a foundation for the implementation of bilateral agreements.

He underlined the need to boost people-to-people and cultural exchanges as well as exchanges between sectors so as to facilitate for the successful cooperation in many fields, including tourism.

Two-way trade expanded by more than 15% in the first quarter of 2018. The RoK is currently the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam and the second largest provider of official development assistance (ODA) for the country, Phuc said.

He proposed taking practical measures to ensure a more balanced trade in the coming time toward US$100 billion in bilateral trade by 2020.

Vietnam has been accelerated the equitization of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in many key sectors, the PM said, expressing his wish that RoK firms will become strategic investors of these SOEs, as well as transfer advanced technology to Vietnamese enterprises.

In reply, the Korean diplomat said Vietnam holds huge potential to become an economic hub in Southeast Asia as the country has emerged as one of the world’s major manufacturing centres.

He glowingly spoke of the Vietnamese government’s efforts to spur the country’s socio-economic development, which reaped important achievements.

Agreeing with the PM’s proposals, the ambassador showed his hope that more and more Vietnamese businesses could engage in the global production chains of RoK firms and pledged his efforts to contribute to the development of Vietnamese start-ups.

Receiving newly-accredited Mozambican Ambassador Leonardo Rosario Manuel Pene the same day, PM Phuc assured Vietnam’s readiness to dispatch experts in agriculture, education and health care to the African country.

He urged both nations to hold a session of the Vietnam – Mozambique inter-governmental committee soon to discuss cooperation in the areas of each side’s strength, adding that Vietnam will send a prestigious agricultural enterprise to Mozambique.

He said he hopes Mozambique would provide conditions for Vietnamese businesses to cooperate and invest in coal and gas while supporting Vietnamese telecom companies’ investment in Mozambique.

Ambassador Pene, in turn, thanked Vietnam for its sending experts to help Mozambique in agriculture, especially rice cultivation as a result of Mozambique’s rice productivity having increased from 2 tonnes to 7 tonnes per hectare. Each year, Mozambique cultivates two rice crops instead of one in the past, he noted.

He also expressed a desire to bolster cooperation with Vietnam in health care, education and energy.