Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Aug. 23 (VNA) -- A State welcome ceremony for Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong was held in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, today, Aug. 23.

The Vietnamese leader began his four-day official visit to the RoK from Aug. 22 as guest of President Kim Dea-jung. The visit, the first ever by a Vietnamese State leader since the two countries established diplomatic ties in December 1992, aims at taking bilateral ties and cooperation to a higher level of "comprehensive partnership".

Major dailies of Viet Nam today carry editorials, reviewing milestones in bilateral ties between Viet Nam and the RoK over the past nine years.

Both Nhan Dan (the People) and Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper editorials note that the Viet Nam-RoK cooperative ties were developed effectively and rapidly and expanded to a number of domains over the past nine years. The two countries have exchanged high-level visits, including the Viet Nam visits in November 1996 by the then President Kim Yong-sam and in December 1998 by his successor President Kim Dea-jung. RoK Prime Minister and National Assembly Chairman have visited Viet Nam as well. In return, the highest leaders of the Vietnamese Party and State have paid official visits to the RoK. Former Party General Secretary Do Muoi visited the country in May 1995, former National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh made his RoK tour in March 1998, and former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in May 1993.

They cite the fact that bilateral economic, trade and investment relations have been unceasingly developed with both countries becoming important partners.

RoK is Viet Nam's fourth biggest investor with a combined investment of USD 3.2 billion in 297 projects by the end of May 2001. Noteworthy is that 70 percent of RoK investment in Viet Nam have been poured into industrial production and technology transfer activities.

Two-way trade between Viet Nam and the RoK was registered at more than USD 2 billion last year and USD 680 million in the first four months of this year or a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase, according to the newspapers.

They further say that Korean businesses gave scholarships to almost 6,000 Vietnamese under-and post-graduate students in 2000, a two-fold increase over 1999.

The RoK Government has granted USD 22.5 million and provided low interest loans worth USD 128 million to Viet Nam's infrastructure development and poverty reduction projects.

The national daily Nhan Dan says: "Viet Nam highly values national construction and development achievements recorded by the RoK, particularly its great efforts to effectively mitigate the consequences of the 1997 financial crisis and rapidly recover the economy."

It further notes that the Vietnamese people support the aspiration for peace and national reunification of the people living in two parts of the Korean peninsula. Viet Nam welcomes and supports the outcome of the historic South-North Korea summit last June and the recent peaceful moves in the peninsula.--VNA