An overview of the meeting (Photo: VNA)
Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu co-chaired the 13th meeting of the Vietnam-RoK Joint Committee for Trade, Industry and Energy Cooperation and the 7th meeting of the Joint Committee for the implementation of the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement in Seoul on December 7.
The meetings aimed to review and evaluate the outcomes of bilateral cooperation in trade, industry and energy since the two countries upgraded their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in December 2022.
Participants sketched out orientations and plans to further promote collaboration in the fields towards a goal of 150 billion USD in two-way trade by 2030.
At the 13th meeting of the Vietnam-RoK Joint Committee for Trade, Industry and Energy Cooperation, the two ministers agreed on measures and new collaboration mechanisms in the fields under their management, while supporting each other at bilateral and multilateral cooperation frameworks, contributing to economic recovery and development in each country.
Specifically, in trade, the two sides will implement comprehensive measures to promote two-way trade to complete the target of 150 billion USD by 2030, including optimising the Korea Plus in Vietnam and Vietnam Plus in the RoK mechanisms, focusing on dealing with obstacles facing the business communities of the two countries and facilitating their partnerships in trade, business and investment, and fostering mutual support at multilateral cooperation frameworks.
In the industry area, they concurred to work together on an action plan to implement the memorandum of understanding on the establishment of a Vietnam-RoK key mineral research centre which was signed on June 23, 2023. The RoK will support Vietnam in building policies in the fields of minerals, rare earth, research, exploitation, processing and human resources training in these fields.
In terms of energy, the two sides recognised positive cooperation results in developing LNG power plants and oil and gas exploitation in Vietnam as well as exchanging information on green energy. The two sides also agreed to facilitate Korean investors’ engagement in energy projects in Vietnam.
The RoK side agreed to support Vietnam to build new energy development policies and promote the energy transition process in Vietnam towards the net-zero emission target by 2050.
At the 7th meeting of the Joint Committee on the implementation of the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement, the two sides noted that throughout eight years of implementing the deal, two-way trade has increased impressively to 87 billion USD in 2022 from 36.5 billion USD in 2015. The RoK's investment in Vietnam doubled to 84 billion USD in 2023 from 43.7 billion USD in 2015.
Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu witness the exchange of cooperation deals between businesses of the two nations. (Photo: VNA)
The two ministers agreed onorientations to implement cooperation areas, including creating favourable legal corridors for the implementation and optimisation of the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement.
Concluding the meetings, the two ministers signed the minutes of the 13th meeting of the Vietnam-RoK Joint Committee for Trade, Industry and Energy Cooperation and the joint statement of the 7th meeting of the Joint Committee on the implementation of the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement. They witnessed the exchange of two cooperation deals in the field of minerals and rare earth.