Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Sunday attended the ground-breaking ceremony of a smart city in Gangseo district, Busan City, the Republic of Korea.— VNA/VNS PhotoThống Nhất

BUSAN — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Sunday attended the ground-breaking ceremony of a smart city in Gangseo district, Busan City, the Republic of Korea.

Dignitaries at the event – the first activity within the framework of ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit – included RoK President Moon Jae-in and ASEAN leaders.

The ‘Eco Delta City’ is a key national project of the RoK to be carried out in the 2019-2023 period. Covering 2.8sq.km, Eco Delta City is expected to accommodate 8,500 people. It will be using modern technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, towards serving people’s lives, promoting growth and sustainable social management and responding to challenges of natural disasters and climate change.

Addressing the ceremony, President Moon highlighted the significance of smart cities for the development and prosperity of countries in the region.

He spoke highly of ASEAN’s recent efforts to boost the ASEAN Smart Cities Network initiative, pledging to share experience and co-operate with ASEAN partners in this domain.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and his entourage arrived in Busan on Sunday afternoon to attend the ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit and the first Mekong-RoK Summit, and pay an official visit to the RoK from November 24-28 at the invitation of President Moon Jae-in.

Meeting Honorary Consul General 

On the same day, PM Phúc received Park Soo-kwan, Honorary Consul General of Việt Nam in the Republic of Korea’s Busan-Keangnam region.

The PM highly valued the Honorary Consul General’s contributions to friendship and co-operation between the two countries, saying as an honorary consul general of Việt Nam in the Busan-Keangnam region and a successful businessman, Park has worked to boost investment and trade co-operation between RoK enterprises and those from Vietnamese localities.

Highlighting the sound development of Việt Nam-RoK ties in all fields, he said the RoK President’s New Look South Policy along with potential of Việt Nam’s development were favourable conditions for Korean businesses to promote operations in Việt Nam.

He asked Park to continue promoting his role to bridge the two countries’ economic-trade and investment relations as well as support the Vietnamese community in the Busan-Keangnam region and the RoK. 

Honorary Consul General Park expressed his admiration for important achievements in socio-economic development the government and people of Việt Nam have obtained in recent times.

He said he was impressed at the strong development of multifaceted co-operation between Việt Nam and the RoK, adding that the numbers of Korean businesses investing in and tourists to Việt Nam had increased.

He pledged to continue sparing no effort to fulfil his role as Việt Nam’s Honorary Consul General and making contributions to the two countries’ relations.

Co-operation praised

In an interview with the RoK’s media yesterday, Prime Minister Phúc said that the bilateral co-operation potential between the two countries was huge and comprehensive in all fields.

Phúc said that the RoK was a developed country with strong capacity in capital, science and technology and rich development experience.

“The country has been deeply participating in the global value chain so it is in need of a young and large market to continue its momentum of development,” Phúc said.

As a country that was reforming, developing dynamically and actively integrating internationally, Việt Nam with a golden population structure, a market of nearly 100 million people and positively evaluated by prestigious international credit rating organisations would be a suitable investment destination, he said. 

“Việt Nam is also a member of many regional and international co-operation frameworks, including new-generation free trade agreements with deeper and more comprehensive commitments,” he added.

“In addition, there are specific factors between the two countries, contributing to the close relations between the two countries, facilitating the expansion of investment co-operation," the Vietnamese PM stressed.

He said that Việt Nam welcomed and encouraged investors from the RoK to increase and expand their investment in Việt Nam, especially in the fields of supporting industries, electronics, energy, high technology, modern agricultural development, infrastructure, smart cities, industrial parks and creative start-ups, towards future growth as well as supporting Việt Nam to participate in the global value chain of Korean corporations.

“We also encourage the RoK’s enterprises to invest in high-tech, environmentally friendly technologies, focusing on transferring new technologies, training high-quality human resources to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.

Appreciating the positive measures of the RoK’s Government to simplify procedures and shorten the time for entry visas for Vietnamese citizens, Phúc said he hoped in the future, the RoK would continue to implement more positive measures to contribute to the development of people-to-people exchanges, including creating favourable conditions for issuing visas to Vietnamese people. — VNS