The two-way trade between Vietnam and South Korea may amount to US$100 billion this year, instead of 2023 as previously targeted, said South Korean Consul General in Vietnam’s Da Nang City Ahn Min Sik.

The South Korean diplomat released his ambitious expectation after reviewing the bilateral trade result of $45 billion in the first half of this year at a seminar held in the central metropolis on Friday.

The event, themed “The history of exchanges between and future prospects of the Vietnam - South Korea relationship,” was part of the celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Despite the heavy impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, both countries gained a two-way trade value of $80.6 billion in 2021, much higher than the $500 million recorded 30 years ago, Consul General Ahn said.

Considering the ongoing trade growth trend, as shown in the first six months of this year, the bilateral turnover may reach $100 billion in 2022, instead of next year as earlier expected, Ahn said.

The diplomat also revealed that the two countries’ people-to-people exchanges have expanded to five million people, including nearly 60,000 Vietnamese-Korean multicultural families.

At the event, Vietnamese and South Korean scholars suggested the two nations deepen the bilateral relationship, through expanding cooperation in the fields of politics, diplomacy, economics, culture, science and technology, education and tourism, and people exchanges.

Since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1992, the two countries have twice upgraded their relations to ‘comprehensive cooperative partnership in the 21st century’ and then to the ‘strategic cooperation partnership’ in 2001 and 2009, respectively.

The relationship between the two countries is about to be further elevated to a ‘comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership,’ so the two countries need to draw up a plan for the next 30 years of the bilateral ties, the consul general said.

South Korea is now an important leading partner of Vietnam in most fields, while the Southeast Asian nation, a fast-growing and dynamic economy with an important role in the ASEAN and East Asia, is also a key partner of South Korea in its New Southern Policy, according to the Da Nang Portal.

Geographical, historical and cultural similarities between Vietnam and South Korea have helped the two nations get close to each other and promote a great development of their cooperation and friendship relations, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Lan, from the Academy of Politics Region 3, commented.

Over the past 30 years, the fruitful relationship between the two countries has been influenced by a series of factors, both objective and subjective, both historical and contemporary, including the changes of the world situation from 1991 up to now, the reform efforts by South Korea, Vietnam’s doi moi (renovation) policy, the external relation policies of both sides and the needs for mutual cooperation, Dr. Lan elaborated.

In addition to its embassy in Hanoi and a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City, South Korea launched another consulate general in Da Nang on November 6, 2020.

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