(VOVworld)- The Republic of Korean President Park Geun Hye on Monday began a state visit to Vietnam at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang. The visit, the first of President Park Geun Hye since she took office in February, is expected to pave the way to expand bilateral cooperation in economics, trade, and investment and create a prerequisite to strengthen the Vietnamese- Korean strategic partnership in the near future.

Choosing Vietnam as the first leg of the President’s trip to Asian countries,  the Republic of Korea shows that it values the friendship with Vietnam and is determined to develop good relations. In an interview with the Vietnamese media on September 8, President Park Geun Hye stressed that the relationship between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea has witnessed remarkable achievements over the past 20 years and that her visit is an opportunity for both sides to prepare for further development in the next 20 years. The achievements recorded since the two countries set up their diplomatic ties in 1992, especially since they established the strategic partnership in 2009, serve as the foundation to enhance bilateral ties.

In the last twenty years, the increased exchanges of visits between the two countries’ leaders have contributed to strengthening bilateral ties and mutual trust. From 2001 to 2009, the two sides upgraded their relationship to the “comprehensive partnership in the 21^st century” and then to the “strategic cooperative partnership”. During his talks with his Korean counterpart Kang Chang Hi in the Republic of Korea in late July, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said:“The cooperation between the Republic of Korea and Vietnam has developed rapidly. Over the past 20 years, the two countries have done a good job covering foreign relations, cooperation in politics, national defense, security and especially in economics, culture, tourism, and exchanges between the two peoples and governments”.

Over the past two decades, the two countries have seen their bilateral trade grow 44 times, investment rise 250 times and people-to-people exchanges 80 times. Vietnam is the largest recipient of Korean aid There are about 100,000 Vietnamese and Korean people living in their respective country, particularly 50,000 Vietnamese-RoK families have helped forge closer ties.

Despite complications in the region and the world, both countries have been exerting every effort to strengthen the strategic partnership and reach common prosperity by 2015. Despite the rapid growth of the bilateral trade, the cooperation between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea mostly focuses on light industry. Both are determined to boost economic ties by shifting into other high value added industries. Speaking at a recent workshop, former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, who is also the former Co-Chairman of the Vietnam-RoK Inter-Government Cooperation Committee, said: “In the face of both opportunities and challenges of the Asia-Pacific region, both countries need to further develop the strategic partnership in politics, security and economics to contribute to peace, stability and cooperation in the region”.

The expansion of strategic cooperation to environment, climate change, science, technology, energy security, information and communications, and bio-technology will help the partnership grow more sustainably. This will be a focus of discussion between President Park Geun Hye and the Vietnamese leaders during her visit. The two sides will discuss a framework of policies to ratify the Free Trade Agreement and to bring the two-way trade to 20 billion USD by 2015 and 30 billion USD in the following years.

Based on recent achievements of bilateral relations, the Republic of Korea President’s state visit to Vietnam is of great importance. It will contribute to boost the strategic partnership, enhance mutual understanding and trust between the leaders and create opportunities for both countries to strengthen cooperation in international forums and deal with issues facing Asia’s peace and prosperity and the international community.