Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh andMinister of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea (RoK) PaikUn-gyu sought measures to complete the two countries’ trade goal of 100 billionUSD by 2020 during their talks in Hanoi on March 22.

The ministers recognized the impressive growth in two-way trade in 2017and the first two months of 2018, holding that this was the results of fruitfulcooperation between the two ministries in implementing the directions issued bythe two countries’ leaders.

They agreed on the need to continue working closely in building jointaction programmes in industry, trade and energy while coordinating in designingand carrying out effective policies and measures to promote bilateral economicand trade partnership.

The ministers concurred to work together in setting up a four-partycooperation mechanism between their ministries and the ministries ofagriculture to create favourable conditions for affiliation in trading of farmproducts, especially the export of farm products of Vietnam to the RoK toreduce the Southeast Asian country’s trade deficit with the RoK.

At the same time, the RoK will also continue supporting Vietnam in developingthe support industry share its experience in investment and developmentpolicies in the industry, especially for sectors of Vietnam’s interests likeautomobiles, electronics, garments and textiles, and footwear.

The two sides will strengthen cooperation in power, energy safety, powersaving, and climate change response and put it in cooperative documents to besigned during this occasion.

The RoK will continue assisting Vietnam to train high-quality humanresources for industry, oil and gas, and renewable energy.

They will expand cooperation in trade defence in the context that thetwo sides are integrating deeply into the world and facing many defencemeasures from other countries.

Following the talks, the two ministers witnessed the signing of five documentsbetween the two ministries, along with 10 deals between enterprises of bothsides.

According to theMinistry of Industry and Trade, trade between Vietnam and the RoK jumped from500 million USD in 1992 to 61.5 billion USD in 2017, making the RoK the secondlargest trader of Vietnam after China.

The RoK is now thefourth largest market and second biggest importer of Vietnam.

The country mostlybought Vietnamese garment and textile products, telephones and spare parts,electronics, aquatic products, wood and wooden products, machines, equipment,footwear, transport vehicles, and fabrics.

Meanwhile, Vietnamimported from the RoK cell-phone and computer spare parts, electronic products,fabrics, machines, equipment, chemicals and fertilizers.

In 2017, two-waytrade reached 61.5 billion USD, up 41 percent year on year, including Vietnam’sexports of 14.8 billion USD, a rise of 30 percent over 2016 and its imports of46.7 billion USD, up 45.3 percent year on year.

In the first twomonths of 2018, Vietnam earned 2.8 million USD in the RoK market, a surge of45.6 percent over the same time last year.-VNA