RoK President’s Vietnam visit expected to tighten bilateral tiesPresident of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Moon Jae-in will pay a state visit to Vietnam from March 22-24, which is expected to be a chance for the two countries to further enhance their relations. In terms of economics, the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement, which became effective on December 20, 2015, has opened a new chapter in bilateral economic ties. The RoK is currently one of Vietnam’s most important economic partners, ranking first in terms of investment, and second in development cooperation, trade and tourism. Two-way trade jumped from 500,000 USD in 1992 to 61.5 billion USD in 2017, of which 14.8 billion USD came from Vietnam’s exports, up 30 percent from the previous year, and 46.7 billion USD from the Southeast Asian country’s imports, a year-on-year increase of 45.3 percent. The RoK also provided Vietnam with 1.2 billion USD in official development assistance for Vietnam in 2012-2015, and a 1.5 billion USD loan for the country during 2016-2020.

Source: VietNamNet News March 21, 2018 03:22 UTC