Early May 17, the 6th “Meet Korea 2024” conference took place in Binh Duong, in attendance of Nguyen Minh Hang, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Vo Van Minh, Vice-Secretary of provincial Party Committee, Chairman of provincial People’s Committee; Korean Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam Youngsam Choi, leaders of authorities and businesses in the Southeastern and Southwestern localities and 170 Korean businesses making investment in Vietnam.

Promoting potential and strengths

The “Meet Korea 2024” conference held in Binh Duong is an opportunity for southern localities and Korean partners to evaluate the results of cooperation over the past time and set out orientations for cooperation in the future while promoting economic diplomacy activities, attracting FDI capital as well as promoting the local images.

In her opening speech, Nguyen Minh Hang, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the conference had many important meanings, contributing to promoting economic diplomacy activities, attracting investment and promoting “Comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Korea” relations in the new period. “Economic cooperation is an outstanding highlight in Vietnam-Korea relations. Korea has become the most important economic partner of Vietnam, holding the No. 1 position in direct investment with US$90 billion, the No. 2 position in tourism development cooperation and the No. 3 position in terms of trade cooperation. Korean businesses investing in Vietnam are successful while making important contributions to Vietnam’s socio-economic development”, said Mrs. Hang.

Mrs. Hang believes that Vietnamese localities attending this conference are all provinces and cities located in strategic socio-economic regions with development potential. The Southeastern and Southwestern regions are the important economic regions, major industrial, seaport, aviation and logistics centers of the country, important traffic hubs to connect domestic and international trade while having favorable conditions for the development of key agricultural industries, including rice production.

In Binh Duong, Korea is the 5th largest foreign investor with nearly 800 projects capitalized at US$3.4 billion. Talking to reporters, Choi Youngsam, Korean Ambassador to Vietnam said: “I am really happy that “Meet Korea 2024″ event held in Binh Duong was very carefully prepared. I had a working session with provincial leaders about the local development orientation in the near future”. Mr. Choi Youngsam added that when returning to Hanoi, he will increase introduction to Korean businesses about Binh Duong with its open investment environment and abundant resources to connect and promote investment cooperation in various fields. He also hopes that the cooperation and investment of Korean businesses in Binh Duong will continue being expanded, becoming a solid foundation in the relationship between Vietnam and Korea.

Creating space with connection

Vo Van Minh, Vice-Secretary of provincial Party Committee, Chairman of provincial People’s Committee emphasized that Binh Duong has focused on improving its reputation and position through building economic diplomacy to serve development, taking people and enterprises as the service center; promoted economic diplomacy, widely popularized the image of Binh Duong province, promoted FDI attraction and strengthened relations with Korean partners. In addition, Binh Duong has created a connection space to help localities, domestic enterprises and Korean partners meet and exchange needs, potential, advantages, and seek opportunities for new investment.

Over the past time, Binh Duong made efforts to cooperate with two localities in Korea, namely Daejeon city and Gangnam district, Seoul. Three cities of the province, including Ben Cat, Thu Dau Mot and Di An, signed friendship cooperation agreements with Korean localities, contributing to deepening the relationship and exchange in many fields between Vietnam and Korea.

In the journey to reach out, Binh Duong has constantly strived and is transforming strongly to develop the digital economy, green transformation, focusing on attracting investors in the fields of high technology, 4.0 technology, ecology that are environmentally friendly, less labor-intensive, use clean energy and renewable energy to become a high-tech industrial center, smart, civilized and worth-living city. “To achieve this goal, in the coming time, Binh Duong province aims at attracting investors from countries with extensive experience in the field of high-tech industry, semiconductor chip industry and advanced electronic products.

“We respectfully call and are very pleased to welcome Korean investors to cooperate with Binh Duong in the field of semiconductor industry and high technology. The province highly appreciates the Korean business community in Binh Duong, not only contributing to economic development, but also showing very good social responsibility to the locality”, Mr. Minh affirmed.