(VOVworld) – President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun Hye arrived in Hanoi on Saturday to begin a state visit to Vietnam at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang. 

Republic of Korea President Park Geun Hye

This is President Park Geun-hye’s first Vietnam visit since taking office in February and the fifth by a Korean President since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992. Following the welcoming ceremony in Hanoi on Monday, the two presidents will discuss issues of mutual concern. President Park Geun Hye will pay a courtesy visit to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, hold talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and meet with National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung. After 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties and 4 years of the strategic partnership, relations between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea have developed remarkably in many areas. The Republic of Korea with more than 3,000 valid projects is Vietnam’s fourth largest investor. Two-way trade value increased 42 times from 500 million USD in 1992 to more than 21 billion USD in 2012. The figure has soared to 15 billion USD over the past 7 months, up 40% from the same period last year. The Republic of Korea’s provision of official development assistance to Vietnam is only second behind Japan. In 2011, the Republic of Korea designated Vietnam one of its 26 “strategic ODA cooperation partnerships” with focuses on green growth, human resource and infrastructure development.