Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) enjoyed another year ofsuccessful cooperation in 2014, affirmed Vietnamese Ambassador to theRoK Pham Huu Chi.

In his interview granted to the VietnamNews Agency on the occasion of the lunar New Year, the ambassador saidParty General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s State visit and PrimeMinister Nguyen Tan Dung’s working trip to the RoK to attend theASEAN-RoK Summit contributed importantly to lifting the bilateral tiesto a new height.

The diplomat describedeconomic cooperation as the highlight in the two countries’relationship, with the RoK becoming Vietnam’s largest investor with atotal capital of 37 billion USD, and two-way trade reaching 28 billionUSD.

He was confident that the bilateralrelations will thrive further in 2015 and the goal of 70 billion USD intwo-way trade by 2020 is quite within reach.

Regarding Vietnam’s labour export to the RoK, Ambassador Chi said thereis a good possibility that a memorandum of understanding on receivingVietnamese guest workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS)programme would be extended. Under the MoU, around 6,000 Vietnameseworkers were sent to the RoK in 2014.

He went onto say that there are now 60,000 Vietnamese brides in the RoK, most ofwhom enjoy happy marriage. However, he also recalled the murder oftwo Vietnamese brides in recent months, saying that the Vietnameseembassy had worked hard with involved offices of the RoK to deal withthe problems and prevent similar cases.

On thethreshold of the traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) – the largest festivalof Vietnamese, the 130,000-strong Vietnamese community in the RoK isbusily preparing for the celebration, the ambassador said.

He added that the embassy is also coordinating with the OverseasVietnamese Association in holding Tet programmes at all big cities inthe country.-VNA