Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung receives former President of South Korea.

On October 21st, at the Government Guest House, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who was on a working visit to Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Welcoming the working visit of former President Lee Myung-bak, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed his pleasure at the comprehensive and strong development of relations between Vietnam and South Korea, especially since the two countries established a strategic partnership in 2009.

The Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam attaches great importance to and wishes to work with South Korea to promote cooperation in all fields in a comprehensive, sustainable, and practical manner, bringing benefits to the people and nations of both countries. The focus will be on economic, trade, investment, and tourism cooperation; political and diplomatic cooperation; defense and security cooperation; and cooperation in labor, culture, and people-to-people exchanges.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed confidence that with the efforts of both sides, Vietnam and South Korea would soon finalize negotiations and sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2014. This would facilitate the development of economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries, as well as cooperation between ministries, sectors, and businesses on both sides.

In that spirit, the Prime Minister highly appreciated the working visit to Vietnam by former President Lee Myung-bak, which included a delegation of leading Korean businesses. The Prime Minister also highly appreciated Mr. Lee Myung-bak's significant contributions to bilateral relations during his presidency and expressed his hope that Mr. Lee Myung-bak would continue to contribute to the development of Vietnam-Korea relations.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated Mr. Lee Myung-bak's significant contributions to Vietnam-Korea relations during his time as President.

Former President Lee Myung-bak stated that over the years, the South Korea-Vietnam relationship has brought development to both countries. He considered the South Korea-Vietnam relationship a prime example of a forward-looking relationship, as the two countries have not only focused on economic, investment, and trade relations but have also established mutual understanding and closeness based on cultural ties and people-to-people exchanges. Lee Myung-bak expressed confidence in Vietnam's future development and believed that South Korea was right to have Vietnam as a partner.

The former South Korean president stated that the South Korean business community is very interested in exploring investment opportunities in Vietnam, and the fact that a number of companies specializing in the production of high-tech products are accompanying the delegation to Vietnam this time is a testament to this.

He also suggested that the two countries should not be overly concerned about the current trade imbalance, as this reflects the noteworthy fact that Korean businesses have been investing increasingly in Vietnam, leading to a huge demand for importing equipment, raw materials, and fuel from Korea.

Former President Lee Myung-bak expressed his hope that the Vietnamese government would continue to support Korean businesses investing in Vietnam, and also hoped that the FTA – an agreement that he and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung initiated negotiations on – would soon be signed, thereby strongly promoting economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries.

According to chinhphu.vn