(VEN) - At the invitation of Vietnamese Industry and Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Kim Jong-hoon led a RoK foreign affairs and trade officials to Vietnam and met the officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on March 22 at their head office in Hanoi.
Vu Huy Hoang and Kim Jong-hoon spoke about bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, industry and investment. They were happy about the development in these areas between the two countries in recent years.
Despite the global economic crisis, two-way trade between Vietnam and RoK increased 2.1 percent to over US$9 billion in 2009. However, Vietnam suffered a trade deficit with the RoK despite a gradual increase in trade exchange.
To boost bilateral trade and help Vietnam step by step reach a balance in trade with the RoK, the two parties agreed to launch a full range of trade/investment promotion activities in the near future. They also discussed a variety of measures to make this happen such as increasing trade exchange teams and trade fairs and the facilitation of quarantine procedures.
Regarding industry, Vietnam proposed that the two countries foster opportunities to cooperate in new areas such as support industry, energy, bio-technology and industrial environment protection, apart from those areas that are being developed such as petroleum, mechanical engineering, electricity-electronics, chemicals, textile-garments and leather footwear.
Following the Joint Statement by senior officials of the two countries, which was made on the occasion of the visit to Vietnam in October 2009 by the Korean President, the two parties agreed to establish a joint workgroup on the Vietnam-RoK Free Trade Agreement, which is to study development possibilities and the feasibility of the Agreement to expand cooperation in economics, trade and investment. The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the RoK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will direct the workgroup.
Also at the meeting the two parties concluded a provision on the establishment of the joint workgroup./.
Ngoc Anh
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